The Fox's Brush
by supergerbilbaby
Summary: Naruto tries to teach Sai about dating and ends up getting in deeper than he originally intended. A multi-chapter NarutoxSai and  eventual  KakashixYamato story set when the Konoha kids are 19/20 years old. There are mentions of NaruSasu and NaruSaku.
1. Chapter 1

Authors note: It's been a long time since I've written anything (nearly three years now), mostly due to personal reasons. I do want to apologise to anyone who was following my fanfics on here or AFF.

This is a story that's pretty much going to be NarutoxSai (which, yes, means that there's going to be gay smex) but there will be other secondary pairings (that may be yaoi, yuri or het). I don't really want to name them all because I like for there to be a little element of surprise for the readers. As for warnings, I don't really want to get into them for the same reason that I don't want to elaborate on pairings too much. However, I can promise that there's nothing nasty that would catch anyone off guard (like shota, loli or non-con).

Anyway, on to the story itself:

oOo

Naruto sat in his usual seat at Ichiraku waiting impatiently for his miso ramen and fiddling with the zipper on his top. He cast an anxious glance at his watch and saw that there was still another ten minutes before seven o'clock. Ten minutes before Sai was supposed to show up for their first "date".

It had seemed like a great idea at the time, Naruto thought to himself as he remembered Sai's sudden and unexpected request just as they had returned from their most recent mission. Naruto's expression turned sour as he thought about the embarrassment that he'd suffered, especially since Sakura and Kakashi had both been there at the time. He took another look at his watch, only to see that less than a minute had passed since he had last checked. He slumped a little on his stool and felt his mind drift back to the exchange that put him in this situation in the first place.

oOo

Naruto stopped and stretched dramatically as they crossed the gates back into Konoha. It had been a long three weeks away from home and he was looking forward to turning in his report, getting his pay from Baa-chan and spending his hard earned money in Ichiraku.

Just as he was about to start walking again Sakura called out to him.

He turned around and saw her, beckoning him over to where she and Sai had stopped just outside of the entrance. He made his way back to them (with Kakashi-sensei following close behind. He obviously couldn't resist finding out what was going on) and began to feel a little suspicious. Sakura and Sai were _both_ blushing and it was only just occurring to him just how strange it was that the two of them had spent most of the trip home whispering to each other just out of ear-shot. He also distinctly remembered hearing Sakura giggling instead of the yelling that he usually heard whenever she spoke to Sai for any extended period of time. Actually, now that he had thought about it, he was a lot more than a little suspicious, nervous even.

"Now, Naruto" Sakura started, and her overly friendly tone made more alarm bells go off in his head. "Sai was talking to me about some of the things that he's been reading about relationships"

"Okay…?" He really didn't know where this was going. He didn't know if he _wanted_ to know where this was going.

"And he said that he's interested in trying a relationship that's deeper than friendship" she said, sweet smile still in place.

"What? Do you want me to bring you cruising for chicks or something?" Naruto asked, his eyes squinted in suspicion as he turned his attention to Sai. But his only response was one of those fixed fake smiles; Naruto looked back to Sakura hoping for enlightenment.

"Well, I spoke to Sai about it and we both agree that his first romantic relationship should be with someone who knows that he's still learning when it comes to human interaction… Someone understanding of his situation as a former member of Root" her speech was becoming more rushed and her face more flushed with every word, like she was embarrassed but enjoying herself regardless. Naruto was lost.

"What does this have to do with-"

"I would like to take you out to dinner, Naruto" Sai cut across him.

Naruto froze, Kakashi even stopped pretending to read his book to openly stare at the impending spectacle, Sakura managed to be even more red faced and Sai just stood there looking completely serious. There was total silence for all of thirty seconds before Naruto remembered how to move his mouth in ways that didn't resemble a fish gasping for air.

"Eeeeh?" he screeched, his voice high and panicky (although he managed to tone it down a notch or two when he noticed that he was drawing more attention to the situation. The last thing he need was more witnesses) "Why would you ask _me_ on a date?"

Sai looked honestly confused by his teammate's reaction. "Sakura already explained my reasons for choosing one of you as-"

Naruto didn't let him finish "Why ask _me_? Why not ask Sakura-chan? She's a girl!"

"I did ask Sakura, but she refused. In fact, she was the one who suggested-"

This time Sai was cut off by Sakura laughing nervously. "Never mind that!" she said "Naruto, come here for a second". She gripped his upper arm tight enough to bruise (she really didn't know her own strength… That or she just didn't care) and pulled him aside just far enough away that Kakashi and Sai wouldn't be able to hear them talking.

"Sakura-chan! How could you do this to me? I'm not going on a date with a _guy_!" Naruto spluttered frantically.

"Naruto, calm down, okay? What harm could it do to go out for a few meals with him?" He was about to start protesting again but she raised her hand and stopped him "Look, he needs the practice so that he can go on real dates. _With girls_. All you have to do is correct him when he says something really stupid and eat all of the _free food_ that _he's_ going to buy for you"

"Why can't you do it?" Naruto crossed his arms and sulked, although he was beginning to come around to the idea. The prospect of free ramen will do that to a guy.

"If I'm seen with him, people will think that we really are dating. If they see you and Sai together it will just look like two guys hanging out, nobody would even look twice"

Naruto was reluctant to admit it, but that did kind of make sense. And free food aside, Sai was his friend and Naruto _did_ want to help him… He ran a hand through his hair and let out a resigned sigh. "I'll give it a shot, Sakura-chan, but if this back-fires then I want you to take me out on a real date. Promise?"

She smiled genuinely at him then, some of the colour returning to her cheeks "Promise".

They returned to Kakashi and Sai who had been standing together awkwardly and obviously not really knowing what to say to each other. It served them both right as far as Naruto was concerned, Kakashi-sensei for obviously delighting in his discomfort and Sai for putting him in this situation in the first place. Naruto looked at Sai, and Sai just stared back at him expectantly. He tried to un-scrunch his face from its frowny position and reform it into something like a smile. Unfortunately, the best that he could manage was a grimace. Better to just get it over with then, he thought glumly.

"Okay, Sai, I'll give this a chance. Meet me at Ichiraku on Saturday at seven… And you're paying."

Sai's face lit up with one of his rare real smiles and that was enough to make Naruto feel like this was a good idea after all. Probably.

He shot a look at his former sensei from the corner of his eye and saw that Kakashi was just watching them with one eyebrow raised (well the one eyebrow that Naruto could see anyway) in what Naruto assumed was amusement. Naruto aimed his best death glare at him, daring him to say something. Kakashi just smiled back at him before returning his attention to his book.

"Okay!" Sakura chirped, clapping her hands together in a businesslike manner "Let's go report to Tsunade-shishou!"

The walk to the Hokage mansion was more or less silent and incredibly awkward. Giving their progress report in the Hokage's office was even worse, especially because Kakashi kept making little quips about how he hoped that Naruto and Sai would work on their "teamwork", while Sakura snickered in the background. For once, Naruto could not wait to be alone.

oOo

It was coming up to seven now and every time Naruto saw a shadow he felt his heart jump in his chest and start beating a mile a minute. Why was he so nervous? It was just Sai! The same Sai who he had eaten ramen with hundreds of times before! He shouldn't even be getting nervous about eating ramen with a _guy_ anyway, what the hell was wrong with him?

He was really beginning to work himself up when a steaming bowl of ramen was placed in front of him, the smell making his stomach grumble and pushing all thoughts of Sai out of his mind. With a smile on his face he broke his chopsticks apart and tucked in.

Of course it was typical that just as the first mouthful of noodles graced his tongue that he would feel a hand on his shoulder, causing him to almost inhale his food. After a few seconds of red-faced coughing and spluttering he finally turned to face his "date".

Sai was wearing his civilian clothes, and if nothing else that was something that Naruto was grateful for. Sai's bare midriff could only have made the situation even more gay than it already was. Regardless of what excuses Sai made about wearing the short shirt for tactical purposes (something about presenting an obvious weak spot so he always knew the enemy's point of attack) Naruto had always had his doubts.

"Hello, Naruto. These are for you." Sai smiled and, much to Naruto's dismay, offered him a bunch of flowers. Flashes of Sai in the Yamanaka flower shop buying the bouquet and telling all of the customers (who were in Naruto's mind all attractive, female and available) that he was getting them for his big date with Naruto. Sai had been here all of two seconds and Naruto was already sure that this was not going to end well.

"Sai, you don't give guys flowers. Okay?" Naruto started, trying to keep his voice level and stay civil "Guys don't like flowers."

"I like flowers" Sai responded, his tone matter of fact "And the book said-"

"Never mind what the book said!" Naruto cried, completely exasperated "_Most_ guys don't want flowers. Flowers are fine if you're on a date with a girl, but you're here with me and I don't want flowers!"

Sai looked confused, and so did the people behind the counter. Naruto began to panic a little, why did he think it was a good idea to bring Sai here again? Where people knew him? Where he planned to come back again at some point in the future? He reached out in a panicked, jerky movement and snatched the flowers out of Sai's outstretched hand and sat them on the stool beside him.

"Sit down and order something already!" Naruto said, still trying to avoid the eyes of the people behind the counter.

At least Sai did what he was told, ordering a seafood ramen and some sake before taking the stool on his other side. Naruto decided that the best thing to do was to focus on his food and just try and treat this like any other time they had been at Ichiraku together.

It was a good idea, in theory, but in practice it didn't really work. There was a deathly silence between them and he caught Sai staring at him several times as if he was trying his best to think of how to break said silence without saying something wrong. It made Naruto feel terrible really, to see his friend struggling (especially since he was the one who had freaked out and caused the awkwardness in the first place) but he couldn't think of anything to say either.

Three bowls of ramen later and Sai finally spoke up "I've come to the conclusion that the books that I've read on the subject may not be appropriate to this situation. I don't think that I can follow the advice on how a man should behave when he is on a date with a woman or the advice for how a woman should act when she's out with a man."

_No shit_, Naruto thought to himself with a sigh and turned on his stool "Sai, those books aren't going to actually help you learn about dating. When you're on a date with someone you should treat it like you would if you were just spending time with them as friends. At least at the beginning anyway"

"But then what makes dating any different than being with your friends?"

"Well, you know…" Naruto blushed and his voice dropped to a whisper "you get to do _stuff_"

Sai just blinked back at him. "Stuff?"

"You know… " Naruto felt like his face was on fire. "_Sex stuff_".

"Oh!" Sai said, his eyebrows raised in mild surprise "Did you want to do 'sex stuff' with me?"

"No!" Naruto screeched, jumping up from his seat and nearly knocking Sai from his "We're both guys! You retard!" And now everyone on the street had stopped and was staring at them. Shit, he really didn't have anyone to blame for this particular embarrassment other than himself.

He looked around and laughed nervously before sitting back down again. He waited for the crowd to start going about their business again before he spoke "Sai, I'm not interested in guys in _that way._" Sai frowned at that_ "_Not that there's anything wrong with it" Naruto added hastily "but I like girls, okay?"

"Look, I'll help you learn about dating and I'll even help you find a girl when you're ready… or a guy if that's what you're into" he smiled easily then, glad to be able to clear things up "But that's all it is, okay? One guy helping another."

Sai smiled back at him shyly. "Thank you, Naruto. You're a good friend."

Naruto grinned and turned back to his ramen. Sure, they had gotten off to a rocky start but maybe this would be as easy as Sakura-chan had made it out to be after all.

oOo

Over the next few weeks Naruto's "dates" with Sai became a regular occurrence, and now they had even progressed beyond visiting the Ichiraku Ramen stand to having a meal in Sai's apartment (although he was still having ramen. Naruto would not compromise on that front).

While Sai was busy in the kitchen Naruto sat in the living area. He looked around the room curiously and couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous. The fact that the living area was almost as large as Naruto's entire apartment and much more nicely decorated made him feel kind of inferior. It was a stupid way to feel but that didn't stop him feeling it. The furniture was expensive looking and the walls were covered with art (that he assumed Sai had painted himself), one wall in particular was almost completely taken up with an abstract painting that was amazingly intricate but also made him feel like he'd go cross-eyed if he started at it for too long. There was no way that he could ever have a nice place like this one unless he married some girl with good taste and better money saving abilities than he had. It made him wonder what Sakura-chan's apartment was like, probably all pink and girly and cute… the kind of place that he'd stick out like a sore thumb in.

Thinking of Sakura made him think about her "master plan" that he and Sai were currently caught up in. He sighed and slumped a little in the comfortable chair and thought about how far they had come since that first awkward meal at Ichiraku. It had been a bumpy ride (having to deal with Sai attempting to call him "Naruto-chan" had been particularly trying) but it had also been a lot of fun. He wasn't sure when it had happened, but at some point he had stopped dreading meeting up with Sai for these little get-togethers and started looking forward to them. Not only that, but he could see that Sai was beginning to change. He was hopeful that he would be able set Sai up with someone without worrying too much about him saying something totally inappropriate and getting himself in trouble.

He sat up straight as Sai came into the room with a very large bowl of ramen in one hand and a plate of yaki soba in the other (unlike Naruto, Sai was not content to eat ramen for every meal). Sai set the ramen down on the glass (and probably expensive) coffee table in front of Naruto before sitting down on the couch beside him to eat his own food.

"Itadakimasuuu~" Naruto said with a grin as he started to shovel the ramen into his mouth. "This is delicious!" he exclaimed through a mouthful of food "Almost as good as Ichiraku's, Sai!"

Sai smiled, and it was simple and genuine (something that was becoming more and more common, Naruto had noticed) "Thank you, Naruto. I was a little worried because it was the first time I had prepared ramen. I had read that the best way to prepare the chicken is-"

After Sai finished explaining every detail of preparation and work that he had put into the meal (Naruto would be lying if he said that he did anything more than half listen), they ate in a relatively comfortable silence and when they were nearly finished, Naruto surprised himself by accepting the offer of sake from Sai. He had never been a big drinker. Travelling with Ero-sennin for three years had shown him just how undignified drunk people could really be.

In the next hour they spoke of their most recent mission, their friends, and Sai's art. They also finished a bottle and a half of sake between them… Well, it was more like Naruto had drank a whole bottle and then started stealing some from Sai; he had begun to notice that his cheeks and ears were feeling a little hot. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant feeling though, and he figured they were at the stage now where he should talk to Sai about the next step in their little 'help Sai get a date' plan.

"Sai, I think you're ready to try going on a real date now" he began, and couldn't suppress the laugh that bubbled up in the back of his throat when he heard how far away his own voice sounded. "So, now we have to talk about what your type is"

Sai frowned a little and looked into his sake cup as if he could find the answer in there. Naruto noticed that Sai was also suffering from a case of red ears and cheeks and tried not to giggle. "I don't really know what my 'type' is, Naruto… I don't know if I have one"

"Ah, c'mon. You have to have a type! Everyone has a type!" Naruto slurred, before he was hit with devious inspiration "What do you think about when you jerk off?"

Sai looked shocked, and to Naruto's surprise, even a little embarrassed. He hadn't thought that Sai could _be_ embarrassed, just like he hadn't thought that he'd like to see Sai blush and squirm uncomfortably. Yep, that was definitely new.

"I don't know…" Sai mumbled, his tone uncertain "I don't know if I want to talk to you about that. Or if you'd want to hear it…"

"What? Do you think about dudes or something?" Naruto tried to sound nonchalant, waving a hand in dismissal "You can tell me, I'm cool with it"

Sai gulped audibly, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down with the action. "Sometimes… I think about having him in my mouth…" He let out a shaky sigh and kept his eyes firmly rooted on his sake cup. He looked like he was about to say something else (maybe to clarify who exactly 'him' was) but changed his mind at the last second.

Naruto's eyebrows shot up, not because Sai had finally admitted that he jerked it to men (Naruto had pretty much come to terms with that possibility already) it was just that he hadn't really been expecting a description of what Sai wanted to do, more _who_ he wanted to do. Add to that another interesting development: Naruto didn't know whether to blame the booze or his hormones (not that that was much of an excuse, he wasn't a kid anymore) but his heart was pounding in his ears and he was as hard as a rock. Shit.

"Having what in your mouth?" he asked, playing dumb. Sai normally pale cheeks were bright red now and he looked away in frustration. Naruto took pity on him "Having his cock in your mouth?" Sai nodded jerkily and continued to keep his eyes trained on the carpet. Naruto grinned an evil grin; Sai was _almost_ cute when he was like this.

"Who do you think about?" he asked at the same time that his mind screamed at him that this was dangerous, that he liked women, that this could fuck everything up and that he already knew the answer anyway. But that last one wasn't really true; he wouldn't know the answer for sure until he heard it come from Sai's mouth.

Sai looked at him directly for only a second before breaking eye contact; Naruto took the opportunity to scoot a little closer across the couch. "You can tell me, Sai. I won't get mad" he said, trying to sound calm and understanding and not at all creepy and predatory. Naruto didn't really think he'd succeeded. He watched Sai lick his lips nervously and all he could think about was how much he wanted to see Sai put those full lips to work. Oh God, he was such a bad friend.

"I…" Sai started, his voice was shaking. "I think about you, Naruto"

He hadn't thought it was possible but he felt his heart pound even faster, this was it. "What if I told you that I wouldn't mind, Sai?" Sai raised his eyes to Naruto's again, his expression was equal parts uncertain and hopeful. There was no turning back now. "What if I said that I want you to suck me off?" his voice sounded so much calmer than he felt.

Sai moaned quietly and shifted in his seat, Naruto couldn't help but notice the tell-tale bulge in his friend's pants. He was surprised (there was a lot of that going around tonight) that rather than repulsing him it managed to turn him on even more.

"B-but, Naruto, I've read that sexual relations can ruin frien-"

Naruto cut across him by leaning in and kissing him roughly.

It was only the fourth time that Naruto had ever kissed someone (and he wasn't sure that the time with Sasuke really counted anyway) and this would be the first time he got further than a hand job with anybody. To say that he was nervous would be an understatement. The kiss was a little awkward, with too much teeth and kind of messy but it was also pretty much the hottest thing that he'd ever experienced.

He moved from beside Sai to straddle him, kissing him the whole time. Sai's hips rose to meet his and Naruto moaned deeply and ground back down against his friend. He felt Sai's hands at the waistband of his pants, unbuttoning and unzipping them quickly before a warm hand slipped inside his boxers and wrapped around him. Naruto broke the kiss and rested his forehead against Sai's, pleasure shooting through him as Sai started jerking him off slowly, his thumb teasing the slit at the top of his cock, smearing the little bead of pre-cum that had formed there. Naruto was more than a little shocked that the shy Sai of less than five minutes ago was so quick to take the initiative, not that he was complaining. Sai used his other hand to pull down Naruto's boxers, exposing him, before grabbing his ass and making him raise his hips.

Naruto watched raptly as Sai leaned down and ran his tongue in a lazy circle around the head of his cock. "Fuck…" Naruto breathed. In his dirtiest of fantasies he had not imagined that it would feel this good just to have someone lick him. So, it was understandable that when Sai suddenly took Naruto's entire cock into his mouth in one go that he had to try very hard not to lose it right then and there.

Sai was very, very good at this. Naruto might have spared a thought as to why he might be so good at giving head if his brain hadn't been completely turned to mush. He forced his eyes back open and looked back down again to be treated to the sight of his friend running his tongue up his entire length before engulfing him in that hot mouth again. As Sai's mouth bobbed up and down on his cock he did something with his tongue that made Naruto's eyes roll back into his head and had him fighting the urge to thrust back.

Naruto moved his arm, from where it had been hanging slack at his side, so that he could run his fingers through Sai's hair. The black strands were soft and silky to the touch, not at all like his own stiff and spiky hair. He tugged softly on his friend's hair and Sai opened his eyes to look up at him, slowing down only a little. His gaze was intense and clouded with lust, and when Naruto ran his thumb across Sai's cheekbone he thought he saw something else in those black eyes. Something soft that he would never expect to see on Sai's face, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared; so fast that Naruto couldn't be sure that he'd really seen anything at all.

Sai's other hand had gone to the waistband of his own pants and he deftly freed his own erection, pumping it in time with the movements of his mouth. It wasn't long before he was moaning loudly around Naruto's cock and his movements started to become erratic with approaching orgasm. Naruto tried to hold out as long as he could and felt a little surge of victory when Sai came first, semen shooting onto Naruto's pants leg. The sight of Sai coming combined with the sounds that he was making and what he was still doing with his talented mouth were enough to shred any control that Naruto might have had left. He felt like every single muscle in his body clenched and let go at once, again and again as the strongest orgasm of his life hit him hard and left him shaking.

Naruto watched Sai's throat move as he swallowed and felt another shiver of pleasure thrum through him. He couldn't contain the small gasp that escaped him as Sai licked him clean. Still breathing heavily, Naruto tucked himself back into his boxers and buttoned himself back up before moving to the side to return to his earlier seat on the couch. He blinked sleepily and smiled, he opened his mouth to say something (he wasn't really sure what exactly) but before he could get a word out Sai had gotten up and retreated into the kitchen. He wasn't quite sure if he should be worried, but his legs felt way too wobbly to pursue.

He listened to his friend rustling around in the other room and the sound of briefly running water before Sai came back into the room and offered him a wet cloth. Now he was just confused.

It must have shown on his face because Sai smiled at him and said "For your pants" gesturing to the wet patch just below Naruto's right pocket.

"Oh, shit! I totally forgot about that!" Naruto exclaimed, laughing nervously and accepting the cloth. He scrubbed at the area as best as he could before setting the damp cloth down on the glass surface of the coffee table. Sai sat back down beside him and Naruto figured that they should probably talk about this, but his head still felt muggy from the sake and more than a little tired from all the 'physical exertion'.

"Can I stay the night?" he asked, only realising how easily misunderstood the question was when Sai looked at him like he had just grown a second head. "I mean, to sleep. I'm just tired, I promise!"

Sai looked indecisive for a moment before relenting "I suppose that it would be okay considering what we just did" Naruto giggled at that "I read that-"

"Seriously, Sai, you have to forget about those books!" laughing and reaching out to poke Sai in the side "Now, let's go to bed". Sai showed him to the bedroom which was Spartan compared to the rest of the apartment, black and white and furnished only with a double bed and a wardrobe. Naruto would have to ask Sai about that some other time, when the room wasn't spinning so much. He felt a little better once he flopped down on the bed and nuzzled his nose into the soft sheets.

oOo

Sai stood at the sink in his bathroom looking at his reflection in the mirror, preparing himself to go back in there. He heard the sound of the bed springs creaking under Naruto's weight and what sounded like muffled laughter.

He hadn't prepared for this eventuality in the slightest and he certainly hadn't had the time to do the reading, but he was almost positive that it was not appropriate to engage in sexual activity with someone who was inebriated… especially when you were more or less sober yourself. And now Naruto was in his bed, he may have said that he just wanted to sleep but what if he initiated something again? Would he be betraying his friend's trust if he accepted? Had he _already _betrayed Naruto's trust?

Sai turned the tap on, brushed his teeth quickly and splashed water on his face. He took a deep breath and headed back to the bedroom.

He stopped dead in his tracks at the door, Naruto was laying face down on the white bedspread and he was completely and utterly naked, his orange and black clothes in a heap at the foot of the bed. His eyes roamed of their own accord, following the natural contours of muscles honed through years of living as a shinobi and covered in unscarred, golden skin.

Sai finally managed to move from his spot in the doorway, approaching the bed cautiously. Naruto's eyes were closed, his face smooth and free from expression in sleep. "Naruto?" he asked quietly, there was no response, he was out cold. Sai had become aroused again but it barely even registered, he had a much more pressing urge to deal with as he went to retrieve his sketchbook and inks.

When he was all set up and his pencil hovered above the white paper, ready to make the first stroke, he hesitated for a second. Was what he was doing appropriate? Was it another betrayal of trust? He worried his lower lip between his teeth as he deliberated over the problem.

His eyes were drawn back to the striking contrast of tanned skin against white sheets and he decided that Naruto didn't necessarily need to know about this piece. What he didn't know couldn't hurt him after all (he was sure that he had read that somewhere).

Conscience silenced, his hand moved across the paper quickly and with practiced ease.

Okay, so that's the first chapter. It shouldn't be too long before I can get the second one up.

Reviews are much appreciated. ^^


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto rose from the depths of sleep slowly; the first thing that he became aware of was that he was somewhere unfamiliar. His life as a ninja frequently required him to spend weeks away from home so this fact in and of itself didn't really mean anything, but there was something different this time. He didn't think that he'd ever woken up in such a comfortable bed, he thought to himself as he rubbed his face against the soft material, it was usually either his sagging, lumpy mattress or a sleeping bag on the hard ground.

The second thing he became aware of was just how thirsty he was, grimacing at the way his tongue rasped against the roof of his mouth. He cracked his eyes open in the hopes of finding a glass of water but all he saw was a plain white wall with a black framed window set in the middle. The wooden blinds didn't really do much to keep out the sunlight and he squinted painfully against the glare. Feeling even more disoriented, he rolled over to check out the other side of the room and had to bite his lip to keep from yelling out in surprise when he realised that he wasn't alone in the bed.

He could only see the top of the other person's head peeping out from under the covers, short black hair that was messy from sleep being the only clue he had to their identity. He knew that he had been in Sai's apartment last night and that he had been drinking. Had he gone on some terrible bender after leaving Sai's and gone home with some girl he didn't know? Naruto's heart was pounding in his chest as he gripped the edge of the blanket and lifted it up slowly. His own nakedness barely even registered as he exposed a shoulder and back that were decidedly masculine and almost as pale as the sheets they were sleeping under. It looked like he hadn't left Sai's after all.

Everything that happened last night came back to him with a bang. He remembered the meal that he had shared with Sai, the drinking and the 'interesting' conversation that they had had when Naruto was more than a little tipsy. Most importantly, he remembered the mind blowing head that he'd gotten from someone who he was supposed to be nothing more than friends with. He blushed furiously as his cock perked up at the memory.

As his traitorous erection brushed against the sheets it brought up an important question: Why exactly was he naked anyway? He began to panic as he realised that he couldn't remember what had happened after they came back to the bedroom. Had they had sex and he had been too out of it to remember? Or was that a stupid thing to think? He was no expert on gay sex but wouldn't he be feeling it if Sai had gone to town on his ass while he was out of it?

Why did the fact that he couldn't remember bother him more than the fact that they might have done something anyway?

Sai shifted beside him and begun to turn over, Naruto quickly closed his eyes and pretended that he was still asleep. He waited a few minutes, which felt more like hours, before he risked opening his eyes again and prayed to every deity he could think of that Sai would still be sleeping. They were nearly nose to nose now but thankfully Sai's eyes were still closed, Naruto almost sighed in relief but caught himself; every second that he avoided having to deal with this 'situation' was a precious resource.

When they were this close he couldn't help but take in Sai's sleeping face and, in truth, it was the first time that he had ever really _looked_ at him. Naruto knew that Sai was the kind of guy who would always be described as pretty instead of handsome, but he'd never really noticed just _how_ pretty he was… especially last night when he'd been all flushed and breathless.

What did all of this mean exactly? He thought with a frown. He didn't think that he was interested in guys… although if he was honest he had had a few dreams over the years involving Sasuke that you don't usually have about someone that you supposedly consider a friend. But, Sasuke aside, he never really thought about other guys in a sexual way. He had certainly never thought of _Sai_ in a sexual context until last night, when a potential first blow job and booze had made him disregard any preconceptions he had about his own sexuality. Now he was in bed with his teammate, naked, hard and seriously considering a repeat performance. He closed his eyes in frustration.

And what about Sai? Naruto knew from their conversation and the subsequent activities that Sai was obviously into him. But what did he want from this? Naruto wasn't going to turn him down if he offered to suck him off again (hell, he might even be persuaded to return the favour under the right circumstances) but was he ready for this to become a relationship if that was what Sai wanted?

Naruto didn't think that he had an answer to that question. Not yet anyway.

He wondered how badly Sai would take it if he grabbed his things and left now. Sneaking out after what happened last night was probably considered a dick move, but he really needed some time to think about all of this crap. Unfortunately, when he opened his eyes again Sai was looking right back at him. Naruto jerked back a little in surprise, it looked like he was going to have to save the heavy thinking for later.

"Morning" Sai said simply as he closed the half inch between them, their noses were touching now and it left Naruto with no choice but to make eye contact. Naruto laughed nervously before replying "Mornin'" and tried to ignore just how fast his heart was beating.

Some of his uncertainty must have shown because Sai's eyebrows were drawn together in what looked like concern "How are you feeling?" he asked as Naruto felt a warm hand on his hip and Sai pulled him a little closer. "I'm fine!" he managed to respond in a relatively level and calm voice despite feeling something hot and hard brush against his cock. Fucking hell, that was hot. Yep, he was finding it very difficult to convince himself that he was 100% straight anymore.

What the hell was wrong with him? He had been trying to think of an escape plan just moments ago but now all he could think about was how much he wanted to stay here in bed with Sai and see if he had any more 'hidden talents'.

As much as he wanted to just give in to temptation, there was something that he had to get out of the way before they did anything else. "Sai, I need to ask you about what happened last night after we came to bed" Naruto asked while watching Sai closely, his heart lurched a little when he saw just how guilty his friend suddenly looked.

"When I came back into the room after brushing my teeth you were laying on top of the sheets, asleep and naked" Sai explained, there was a blush forming high on his cheekbones. "I helped you get into the bed, and then I folded your clothes before undressing and getting into bed myself" Sai brushed against him again and it nearly derailed Naruto's train of thought entirely.

"Nothing else happened?" Naruto was suspicious, but whatever Sai was hiding he didn't think that it involved stealing what remained of his virtue. Or maybe he was just too horny to care.

"Nothing else happened" Sai said softly. He still wasn't completely convinced but that was all the justification that Naruto needed to shove the subject to the back of his mind and kiss Sai. It was better than last night, Naruto noticed, and less messy which probably had something to do with his being sober this time around.

They started slow but it wasn't long before the kiss became more heated and Naruto figured that he should actually take an active role this time. He wasn't quite sure that he was ready to take the plunge and have another guy's cock in his mouth (yet) but jerking Sai off shouldn't be too different from doing it to himself. Or at least that was what he was hoping.

He broke the kiss and sat up, throwing the sheets to one side and exposing them both to the cool air. Naruto paused for a second to take in the sight before him; Sai was flushed with arousal making the skin of his cheeks, lips, and collarbone stand out in stark contrast against all of the white. His normally perfect hair was in disarray, some of it sticking to the fine sheen of sweat on his forehead. Naruto's eyes were finally drawn downward to Sai's cock which was standing proudly to attention against black pubic hair; the head was the same flushed colour as his cheeks. Naruto was caught off guard by how hot it made him just to know that he was the one who had gotten Sai that hard.

Naruto ran one hand down Sai's stomach, grinning when he felt the abdominal muscles jump under his touch. He used his index finger to circle Sai's bellybutton in a slow, teasing movement and when he heard Sai moan a desperate plea under his breath Naruto felt his cock pulse in response. He was beginning to wonder if he had a sadistic streak.

He finally wrapped his fingers around Sai's erection and gave it a squeeze (relishing the deep groan that such a simple action received) followed by a few, slow experimental strokes before he settled into a comfortable rhythm. Naruto marvelled at how responsive Sai was to his touch, the sight of him grunting and moaning as he thrust back into each stroke was almost enough for Naruto to worry that he might come without Sai touching him once.

Naruto picked up the pace a little and Sai threw his head back in pleasure, his fists gripping the sheets so tightly that his knuckles were white. It was obvious that he wasn't going to last much longer so Naruto was surprised when Sai's hand covered his and made him stop.

"W-wait a second" Sai gasped before sitting up and leaning over the edge of the bed. As Sai rummaged around under the bed Naruto sat back and ran his fingers slowly up and down his own cock while enjoying the nice view he was being presented with. It was a little surreal; if someone had told him that he'd be in this position a week ago he'd have laughed in their faces and maybe even tried to beat them up for good measure. But here he was, and damn it if Sai didn't have one hot ass.

Sai finally found whatever it was that he was looking for and moved up the bed to where Naruto was sitting. He climbed into Naruto's lap so that they were facing each other and their cocks were pressed together. "Wha-" Naruto started to ask but Sai started kissing him again, he heard the pop of something being opened and then Sai's hand, cool and slick with lube, wrapped around both of their erections and started stroking them together.

"Oh…!" Naruto moaned in appreciation, his eyes rolling back into his head as Sai began to pick up speed, he couldn't believe how good it felt to have Sai pressed so tightly against him. He was once again at Sai's total mercy and felt some kind of primitive urge to assert his dominance. One of his hands fisted in Sai's hair, pulling his head to the side so that Naruto could bite and suck the junction where Sai's neck met his shoulder. Sai groaned and bucked against him, his hand moving even faster now. Naruto used his free hand to grab Sai's ass, fingernails digging into the soft flesh and leaving red tracks as he felt his orgasm hit.

Naruto came first but Sai was seconds behind him, both shooting come onto each other's chests and stomachs. Naruto felt boneless as he slumped heavily against Sai, shivers still coursing through him. They both stayed together like that for a few minutes, trying to catch their breath but eventually Naruto wrapped his arms around Sai's mid-section and flopped to the side so that they were lying down again.

As the post-sex high began to fade Naruto found himself worrying again. "Hey, Sai?" Sai's eyes fluttered open from the half doze that he had begun to slip into and he responded sleepily "Hm?"

"We have to talk about this" Naruto said seriously, and he watched as Sai's expression changed from sleepy contentment to wide-awake and nervous. "Naruto, I apologise if I overstepped any boundaries and did something inappropriate. Your friendship means more to me than-" His overly formal language would have sounded ridiculous if he wasn't so obviously genuine, Naruto thought glumly before cutting him off.

"Sai, you didn't do anything that I didn't want you to do, okay? It's just…" he licked his lips and sighed before starting again "This is all very new for me and I'm feeling a little lost. I'm still not sure how I feel about it… do, you?"

"Do I know how I feel about our having sexual relations?" Sai asked, his tone was completely serious. Naruto winced and nodded "Naruto, you are the only person that I have ever…" he paused as he searched for the word "…desired to be with in a romantic context" It was obvious that it was very difficult for Sai to put his feelings into words, and Naruto felt even worse for pushing him to this point. "I feel afraid. I'm afraid that you won't want to do this again and I'm even more afraid that you won't want to be around me anymore"

Naruto pulled him a little closer and rubbed what he hoped were soothing circles into the small of Sai's back. "I need some time to think about the… uh… romantic part of our relationship. But I will _never_ stop being your friend, okay? That's a promise."

Sai looked like he was satisfied with that response, for now anyway. "What do you want to do now?"

"If you'll let me use your shower that would be great" Naruto said with a smile, Sai nodded and detangled himself from Naruto's limbs before getting up off the bed. "Your clothes are folded in the corner" he said, and Naruto noticed that his voice had regained its detached tone. He already missed the shy and insecure Sai, who also happened to be a secret sex fiend.

Naruto tried to not feel too exposed when he bent to pick up his clothes, but it was a little difficult when he knew that Sai was staring at him. He turned around and faced his friend, Sai quickly exited the room but not before Naruto had seen that he was blushing again. Clutching his clothes in front of his crotch he followed Sai to the bathroom where the basics of the controls for the shower were explained in a curt manner before he was left alone. Naruto was thrown by Sai's sudden change back to his usual behaviour (or lack thereof) it was difficult to consolidate this Sai with the one that he had had a glimpse of last night and this morning. It made him wonder if he had just been confusing Sai's arousal with emotion.

Naruto reached into the cubicle and turned the water on as hot as it would go before stepping under the spray, it stung but it made him feel a little better. He sorted through the bottles on the shelf in the shower, he eventually found shampoo and shower gel but not before going through six different types of conditioner (what the hell?) and a surprisingly large bottle of something that he could only assume was lube. He worked the shampoo into a lather in his hair, smiling a little at how the smell of it reminded him of Sai, and washed it out while trying to make sure that he didn't get any into his eyes. Then he scrubbed himself with the shower gel, paying special attention to where he had gotten come on himself earlier.

He closed his eyes and appreciated the feeling of the water beating down on his shoulders. At least he had a little more time to think about things, even if he could just figure out what to do in the short term that would be a good start. He really needed to get a second opinion on this… Sakura was definitely a no-go, admitting that you kind of, sort of, maybe liked your male teammate was not something you were supposed to talk about with the girl that you had been practically in love with since you were a kid. Kakashi was an option but Naruto could not see him dishing out helpful or meaningful relationship advice, considering his obsession with Ero-sennin's books and the fact that Naruto could not think of a time he'd seen Kakashi spend time with another human being outside of work.

He felt a pang of sadness as he thought about how much he needed Jiraiya, his mother and his father at times like this. Helping with this kind of awkward, growing-pains crap was what family was for. The people closest to family after that were Iruka-sensei and Tsunade-baa-chan. He supposed that they were the best options when it came to asking for advice… even if he was kind of worried about their reactions.

The water was beginning to go cold. It looked like he wasn't going to be able to hide out in here anymore, no matter how much he wanted to.

When he stepped out of the shower to dry himself he couldn't help but appreciate that the towels were fluffy and smelled nice and clean, not like his own towels that he avoided washing for as long as possible and always smelled funny as a direct consequence.

He got dressed quickly and decided to help himself to some mouthwash in the hopes of making his mouth feel less like crap. He turned to face the door and took a deep breath, his hand hesitated for only a second before reaching out and turning the doorknob.

oOo

Sai had just finished washing enough rice to feed both of them (measuring out twice as much for Naruto. He had seen how much food that Naruto could put away in one sitting) and he transferred it to the rice cooker. He set about preparing fish for the grill and eggs for some tamagoyaki. It wouldn't be the most elaborate breakfast since he hadn't been expecting to feed anyone other than himself this morning but it would have to do. He de-scaled the fish absentmindedly and a small frown appeared on his face as he listened to the shower running in the other room.

The past few months had been strange and new for Sai, a gradual build up of unfamiliar (and in some cases unpleasant) emotions that had culminated in the events of the previous night. He supposed that it had started innocently enough, when he had found himself appreciating things like the strong curve of Naruto's jaw or a droplet of sweat that ran slowly down Naruto's bare back as he trained, but it didn't stay that way for long.

Masturbation had never been anything more than a simple physical release for Sai, just one more item on the list of bodily functions that he had to take care of to keep everything running smoothly, but it wasn't like that anymore. Now, the second that he touched himself his mind would call up images of Naruto, and the intensity of the orgasms he experienced left him panting and sweating in desperation. Even simple things like Naruto brushing against him by accident would have his heart thumping loudly in his chest and his thoughts turning to things most inappropriate.

As he exhausted the medical texts and turned to books on social anxiety it didn't take him long to find a name for the malady that he was suffering from: infatuation. This in turn had led him to the books about romantic and sexual relationships. He had been disappointed to see that all of them only contained advice on relationships between men and women, leaving him uncertain as to how to proceed. In the end he decided to try out what he had read on Sakura, thinking that engaging her romantically might divert his attention from Naruto and onto something… more easily researched.

That plan had been shot down the second that the proposal had left his mouth, but through her good intentions she had set him on to a much more favourable course of action. He had tried, without much success, to make his intentions known to Naruto whenever they were on their dates. As weeks passed and it started to look less and less likely that Naruto was going to return his affections Sai had begun to experience an unpleasant despondent feeling that ate away at his sense of self purpose and left him feeling empty and worthless. He could not remember ever feeling so consistently bad for so long and for the first time since he had joined Team Kakashi he found himself wishing that he couldn't feel anything.

Then Naruto had kissed him last night and he experienced a wave of emotion stronger than anything he had ever felt before, so much so that Sai couldn't imagine how he would feel if it was taken away from him.

He snapped out of his reverie when he heard the shower turn off and Naruto moving around in the bathroom. He quickly threw the fish into the grill pan and grabbed the plates and bowls that he needed. Just as he was serving the food he heard the bathroom door open shortly followed by the sound of someone sitting down heavily on the couch. He placed the dishes and chopsticks onto a tray and headed out into the living area.

Naruto looked up when he entered, his eyes going wide when he saw the food. "Wow! That looks amazing, Sai"

"It's nothing special, just what I make for myself every morning" Sai stated simply as he set the tray down on the coffee table and sat down, he was a little suspicious that Naruto was just praising him to be polite.

Naruto grinned and reached for his chopsticks "It's one hundred times better than what I usually have". He started tucking in to the food with a gusto that Sai had only ever seen Choji exceed.

As Sai began to eat his own breakfast (at a much more modest pace than his companion) he stole a few sidelong glances at Naruto and wondered if he should say something. Unfortunately, he had no idea what people were supposed to say in these situations. Should he act as if nothing had changed or should they talk more about what happened? Most of all he just wanted to know where to go from here.

oOo

It had been so long since Naruto had had anything other than instant ramen for breakfast that he had almost forgotten just how good a proper morning meal could be. In fact, it was so good that it had managed to take his mind off how potentially awkward this meal could have been. He was just finishing his fish when Sai spoke up.

"Um, Naruto?"

Naruto wished that Sai had waited until he had at least finished chewing before trying to talk to him, he hurriedly swallowed the food in his mouth and looked at Sai expectantly. "Yeah?"

"Are we were still having our date on Saturday?" Sai looked calm but Naruto caught the edge of uncertainty in his voice.

That was the big question wasn't it? Things had changed, and labelling their meals as dates now would have much more meaning behind it than it had had before… at least it would to Naruto anyway. But while he still hadn't decided if he wanted to _date_ Sai he knew that he did definitely want to continue spending time with him.

"Yeah, of course we can still hangout." Sai frowned at his choice of words and Naruto tried to smile reassuringly "I'll let you know where I want to go after we finish training on Saturday, okay?"

Naruto was a little worried that Sai would press the issue but he seemed to be at a loss for words. Naruto gave himself a mental pat on the back for buying himself almost two days worth of time to figure out how he felt about all of this. Now he just needed to get out of here and get some distance.

He picked up his rice bowl and used his chopsticks to shovel the remaining grains into his mouth before standing up and stretching. "Thanks for the food, Sai. I'm going to head off now, I need to go talk to someone about…" he paused and cleared his throat"…something" That did not come out anywhere near as convincing as it had sounded in his head. He made a beeline for the door without waiting for a response, not wanting to give Sai the opportunity to argue.

In the hall he slipped his shoes on quickly before opening the door, he had just stepped across the threshold when Sai called his name. The desperation in Sai's voice stopped Naruto in his tracks and he turned around, ready to tell Sai that he was in hurry (or something similar) but the look on his friend's face rendered him speechless.

Naruto felt an almost physical pain in his chest, he couldn't think of a time when he had seen Sai look so hurt or so lost… and it was all his fault.

Without really thinking about it he had moved back into the apartment, crossed the short space between them and pulled Sai into a fierce hug. Sai's hands were stiff at his sides for a few seconds before he raised them and wrapped them around Naruto's waist. Naruto ran his hand up and down Sai's back, feeling how his heart was beating just as fast as his own. As he drew away their eyes met and Sai leaned in to plant a soft kiss on his lips. It was completely different from the kisses that they had already shared, there was nothing sexual about it and it lasted for only a second but there was just something that felt… right about it.

When he pulled away he saw that Sai was smiling shyly with no trace of the sadness that had been there before. He answered the smile with a relieved (and slightly embarrassed) grin "Okay, I really have to go now. I'll see you on Saturday."

"Okay" Sai answered, and while Naruto heard disappointment lurking in there somewhere it was still a million times better than the pain he had seen on Sai's face earlier.

He left the apartment and waved once to Sai before walking down the stairwell on the outside of the building, he heard the door click shut softly behind him. As he turned the corner he was more confused than ever but he couldn't quite keep the smile off his face.

oOo

Okay, so there's the second chapter. Thanks Himeoka and Afuri for their reviews, and to everyone who added this story to their watch lists. I hope that you all like the new chapter!

I can't promise that I'll have the next chapter up in a week because I work in retail and we all know how bad that can be at this time of year! I'll try to get it finished and up here ASAP though, I promise.


	3. Chapter 3

Umino Iruka was sitting in his classroom after the students had gone home and re-organising his files when he heard a knock on the door. He crossed the room and slid back the panel to reveal a familiar smiling face.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto cried before pushing past him into the classroom and sitting on the edge of his desk.

"Naruto, you don't need to refer to me as 'sensei' anymore." Iruka said with a weary smile, even though he already knew that Naruto wouldn't listen. "What brings you here anyway? Feeling nostalgic for your academy days?"

"Heh, not really…" Naruto scratched at his cheek absentmindedly as his expression turned evasive "There was just something that I wanted to ask you about."

"Oh?" Iruka's interest was piqued.

Naruto suddenly seemed very interested in one particular spot on the floor. He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something and then closed it again, sighing heavily and trying again with no success. Iruka would have laughed if Naruto hadn't looked so serious.

"Naruto? What's wrong?" he asked, trying to sound reassuring and not at all like the worried mother hen that he felt like.

"You see, Sakura-chan convinced me that it would be a great idea to help Sai learn about dating." Iruka nodded for him to continue. "So, I agreed to teach him about what to say when you're on a date and stuff like that, we just ended up hanging out a lot and he bought me plenty of ramen…" Naruto paused and Iruka watched him pull at the hem of his shirt with shaky hands. "After a while I kind of began to suspect that Sai might be… uh… _you know_"

"He might be what?"

"You know… _into dudes_"

Iruka frowned and crossed his arms "Naruto, I really thought that I had taught you better than this." Naruto looked like he'd been punched in the gut. "Something like that shouldn't stop you from being friends with him, he's still the same person-"

"No!" Naruto cried out and immediately looked sheepish for being so loud. "That's not what I'm trying to say... Just let me finish, okay?"

Iruka made a gesture for him to continue.

"I don't have a problem with Sai being gay... or whatever he is, I was even ready to help him find a guy to hook up with but then we were at his place and I got drunk and… things got kind of… weird."

"Weird how?" This could not be going where he thought it was going.

"Like, maybe, we kind of did something…"

It was going exactly where he thought it was going. "What, did you two kiss?"

"M-more than that…" Naruto's face was bright red by now and he had twisted the end of his shirt so tightly that his knuckles were white. "A _lot_ more than that"

Oh my. Iruka felt his own face heating up now. "So, you and Sai did something sexual together" he stated, trying to sound like the calm and rational adult. "Do you have feelings for him?"

"Sai is my friend and that bond is important to me. But now, it feels a little bit different… I know that he likes me and I…" Naruto groaned and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "I guess that I like him too. I just don't know if I'm ready for this kind of thing… or if I'm ready to deal with other people's reactions to it…"

Iruka supposed that it made sense, Naruto had been vilified by the village for years and now that he had their admiration and respect he was loath to risk losing it again. "Naruto, I can't tell you what you should do" the way that Naruto looked at him with pleading eyes made him feel terrible but he continued on. "This is something that you have to figure out for yourself."

"…what would you do in my situation?" Iruka was about to repeat himself but Naruto cut him off "Please, Iruka-sensei. _I need help_."

Oh, what the hell…"The life of a shinobi is often lonely and, even more often, short. Sometimes you need to take happiness where you find it."

Naruto seemed to mull over his words for a few seconds before speaking again "Are you saying that I should be with him just because I could die on my next mission? Or the one after that?"

Iruka reached out and placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder "No, Naruto. I'm saying that you shouldn't worry so much about what other people think when it comes to you being happy. Our lives are short and brutal, and sometimes you need something to take you away from that… something worth fighting for. No matter what anybody else has to say about it."

Naruto's sunny smile resurfaced and he pulled Iruka into a hug. Iruka couldn't help but laugh and he ruffled Naruto's hair affectionately before ushering him to the door.

"Well, Naruto, if that's everything… I have paperwork that needs doing"

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei! You really helped me out." Naruto shot him a final grin before heading down the corridor.

As he waved goodbye to his favourite student, Iruka felt his smile falter a little. He knew that Naruto wasn't a little boy anymore but he still couldn't help but hope that he wasn't going to end up getting hurt.

oOo

Naruto was strolling down a relatively deserted street on the way back to his apartment when he caught sight of three familiar figures coming around the corner. Kiba and Hinata were walking together, their fingers entwined, with Akamaru trotting beside them.

Naruto had avoided Hinata like the plague after her confession during Pain's invasion of Konoha; he just hadn't known how to deal with her or her feelings without doing something totally stupid. His total denial of the situation had been enough to send Hinata into the arms of her teammate (or at least that was how Sakura told the story) and they had been together ever since. He had become quite close with both of them after that, often bumping into them at the training grounds and engaging in a friendly spar or two. Hinata also seemed a lot less nervous around him and her stutter was almost non-existent now which made talking to her a lot easier. The lack of hostility on Kiba's part had always seemed a little strange to Naruto given the fact that Hinata had confessed to him, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse (or dog) in the mouth.

Naruto jogged towards them, raising a hand in greeting "Kiba! Hinata!" Hinata returned his wave with a shy smile. Kiba grinned and opened his mouth to say something before his expression froze in abject horror, his nose scrunched up in extreme distaste.

"What?" Naruto asked, confused "What's wrong?"

"You fucking _stink _of Sai!" Kiba spat, his tone suggested that this was probably one of the worst things that anyone could smell like, ever.

"Kiba-kun!" Hinata cried out in shock.

Oh shit, oh shit, _oh shit_. He really should have seen this coming.

Naruto weighed his options, he could try to run or he could try and lie his way through this. Running would only really solve the problem for the short term and would be as good as an admission of guilt anyway, not to mention the inherent problem with the idea of trying to outrun other shinobi (especially ones who specialise in tracking), there was no guarantee of success… while lying would buy him the most time and might even actually work, as long as Hinata didn't whip out the Byakugan of course.

He tried his best to recover his composure and with what he hoped was a calm and believable tone of voice he responded "I stayed over at Sai's last night and used his shower this morning. You probably just smell his shampoo and stuff on me."

Kiba rolled his eyes and grimaced in disgust "It's not just his _shampoo_ that I can smell on you, Naruto"

Naruto didn't think he'd ever been so embarrassed in his life, he opened his mouth to say something (anything) but nothing came out other than a weird strangled noise. He hated himself for the fact that this was making him feel ashamed about what had happened with Sai.

"I-I'm sure that there's a perfectly good explanation for that. Right, Naruto-kun?" Hinata offered, her face was just as red as his felt, she was obviously trying to help him come up with a more convincing excuse but he knew that he only had one option left. He needed to suck it up and face this head on.

Naruto felt his resolve strengthen despite the unpleasant, wobbly feeling in the pit of his stomach. Iruka's words still fresh in his mind. "This isn't how I would have wanted you guys to find out… but Kiba's right. Last night Sai and I did some… things… and now I guess we might be sort of… um… dating…"

Naruto's voice trailed off at the end and he scratched at the back of his head nervously, looking at them expectantly.

Hinata's eyes were focused on where her fingers were laced together with Kiba's and when she spoke her voice was quiet but firm "Naruto-kun, if this is what makes you happy" her gaze rose to meet his "then it makes me happy too."

Naruto smiled in relief, feeling like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders, he could have kissed her if he wasn't so sure that that would just make things with Kiba even worse. He saw her elbow her teammate discretely and Kiba made a small resigned noise through his teeth.

"Look, Naruto. I don't like Sai, there's just something about him that bothers me-" Naruto opened his mouth to protest but Kiba continued without giving him the chance. "-I'm not saying that I think he's untrustworthy or anything, I've been on the battlefield with him and he pulled his weight just as much as everyone else. I can't really put it into words… just that the way he acts doesn't sit right with me, it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end… but that's _my_ problem, not yours."

Kiba paused for a second, a ghost of a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. "As for you messing around with another guy, it doesn't bother me. Hell, I can't even say that I'm surprised. We all know that you've had a hard-on for Sasuke for years-"

"Kiba-kun!" "Hey!" Naruto and Hinata cried out at the same time. The reason that Kiba had never seen him as a threat was all too clear now.

"I'm not gay!" Naruto spluttered "I like girls!"

Kiba raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture "Whatever, that's your business. I shouldn't have said anything before… I was just surprised and I opened my mouth without thinking." Kiba grinned at him then and it was honest if just a little uncertain "So… we cool?"

Despite his wounded pride when Naruto smiled back it came easily "We're cool".

"Just don't expect me to speak at the wedding" Kiba said, laughing.

"_Kiba_" Naruto warned, punching him in the shoulder lightly and laughing a little himself. And just like that it really did feel like things were back to normal. Sure, he'd given Kiba one more thing to rag on him about but he could live with that.

If telling his friends about Sai was going to be this easy then he wasn't quite sure what he had been so afraid of. As if she had read his mind Hinata spoke up "When are you going to tell everyone else? … _Were_ you planning on telling people about it in the first place?"

Naruto sighed "I was going to tell everyone… eventually. I'm not even completely sure what's happening myself, never mind how to explain it to other people…"

"Well, don't worry, Naruto-kun. Our lips are sealed until you're ready" she said with a reassuring smile.

oOo

Konoha's hospital was unusually quiet, Sakura thought to herself as she did her rounds. It was so quiet that she was beginning to wonder why she had even bothered coming in today at all, she had spent the guts of five hours doing essentially nothing. Five hours that she could have spent training or cleaning her apartment, anything would have been a better use of her time than this.

She checked her watch and saw that it was just about time for her to take her lunch break. With a sigh she headed down to reception to report in. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs a nurse, whose name she couldn't quite place, called her aside.

"One of your teammates is here to have lunch with you" the girl said with what sounded like envy.

Sakura said her thanks and continued her journey to reception fully expecting to see Naruto's smiling face when she got there. Instead she was greeted by Sai who gave her a polite wave; she didn't even try to conceal her surprise.

"This is unusual" she started. "You've never come to have lunch with me before"

"I just wanted to talk" he offered mildly "I made you some food"

She considered questioning him more but her eyes drifted to the neatly wrapped bento boxes on his lap and her stomach growled loudly. She clutched at her midsection in embarrassment "Okay, fine. We'll head up to the roof so we can talk in private."

The walk to the roof was silent but not awkward, she had long given up on trying to make small talk with Sai. She squinted against the sun when she opened the door to the outside, a cursory glance confirming that they were alone. They took a seat on the edge of the roof, feet casually dangling over the edge, before Sakura opened her lunch and tucked into the food eagerly.

"This is delicious!" she exclaimed and her appreciation was genuine. The lunch that she had prepared for herself this morning paled in comparison.

"Thank you for the compliment." He said with his usual small smile "I had never prepared food for another person until last night so I was a little worried that it would not be to your satisfaction"

Oh, that was right! She had forgotten all about Sai and Naruto's 'date' last night. "What did Naruto think of your cooking?"

"He complimented it as well" Sai said, and Sakura could have almost sworn that she heard some pride there.

"So, what else did you guys do?" she asked absentmindedly as she picked up a slice of pickled ginger with her chopsticks and popped it into her mouth.

"I gave Naruto oral sex" he stated simply.

Sakura's eyes went wide and she partially inhaled the food in her mouth. She started coughing so violently that she nearly lost her bento box over the edge; she felt one of Sai's hands grasp the back of her shirt to steady her. She accepted the bottle of water that he offered gratefully and gulped it down between coughs and gasps.

When she finally got herself back under control she turned to Sai and asked "Could you repeat that?" her voice was barely a croak.

"I said" he started, still looking a little concerned "that not long after dinner I gave Naruto oral sex"

She just stared at him for a moment, the information not really sinking in. Naruto and _Sai_…? This could not actually be happening. "…What?"

"I'm sorry if I was unclear." He looked genuinely apologetic "I stimulated Naruto to orgasm using my mouth"

"I know what oral sex is, you moron!" she shouted and immediately regretted it when she saw how perplexed Sai was by her outburst. "How did this even happen?" she asked, trying to keep her voice at a more acceptable level.

"We had been drinking and the conversation turned to what I think about when I masturbate" his tone was completely calm and matter of fact. Sakura thought that her face might spontaneously combust any second now, was that the kind of thing that guys spoke about when they were together? "I admitted that I often think of Naruto, more specifically about-"

"I don't think that I need the specifics there, Sai!" Sakura hastily cut in. "Just give me a basic idea of what happened next"

"Naruto said that he didn't mind and that he wanted me to act out my fantasy" he was blushing now, Sakura noticed with a little bit of vindictive glee. She didn't want to be the only one uncomfortable here.

"So, you did?" she was experiencing a most unpleasant combination of embarrassment, jealousy and (she was reluctant to admit it, even to herself) excitement.

"Yes, and afterwards we went to bed"

"You went to bed together?" her voice had risen an octave again and she tried to reign it in. She was so glad that they had come up here and away from all of the potential eavesdroppers.

"Yes, I went to brush my teeth but Naruto was already asleep when I got back" he looked oddly satisfied with himself and Sakura's heart dropped. She knew that Sai was socially inept but he couldn't have done what it sounded like he had done… could he?

"Sai, you didn't _do_ anything to him when he was asleep did you?" she asked, proud of how calm she sounded. "This is very important so make sure that you answer me truthfully, okay?"

"Please don't tell him" He looked so guilty. Oh god, she was going to kick the living shit out of him. "…I painted a picture of him" he let out a small sigh at his confession. Now Sakura was even more confused.

"You _painted_ him? While he was asleep?" Sai nodded. "You didn't do anything else to him? Anything _sexual_?"

"No… I didn't think that would be appropriate…" he looked thoughtful for a second "should I have?"

"No!" she exclaimed "It would have been more than inappropriate, Sai! It would have been a complete betrayal of his trust! You _always_ need someone's consent before you do anything sexual with them, okay? No exceptions."

He looked a little taken aback but he nodded seriously "I will remember that in future. Thank you, Sakura"

She sighed explosively, glad to have at least gotten that out of the way. "So, you painted him but you don't want him to know? I don't get it, Sai. You paint and draw us all of the time without asking, even when we're asleep." She said with mild annoyance.

"This was different"

"How so?"

"Naruto was naked at the time." Sai started "Would you like to see it?" he asked, already reaching for his bag.

_Say no, say no, say no!_ She thought frantically to herself but she found herself frozen, her tongue laying uselessly in her mouth, as he retrieved the scroll from his bag, unfurling it and activating the storage seal to summon up a large sketchbook. He opened it to the latest page with the kind of reverence that she had never seen him use for anything other than the picture book that he had painted for his brother.

Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the picture, it was _beautiful_. All warm yellows and golds against a black and white background, she didn't know much about art but even she could see the amount of effort and care put into every little detail. She did feel a little second hand embarrassment on Naruto's behalf since it was his naked body that she was staring at (and _wow_, Naruto had really… _matured_ from the dorky little kid that she had met all those years ago) but it wasn't as bad as she had feared, the fact that he was laying on his stomach rather than face up certainly helped but it wasn't just that. The way that Sai had spoken about it she had been expecting some dirty sketch that would make her blush and look away but this picture commanded her attention in the way a classical nude painted by one of the old masters might. There wasn't anything perverse about the picture, instead it just seemed natural.

There was just so much feeling in it that Sakura had a hard time believing that Sai had painted it at all. She had seen him paint the most breathtaking landscapes without batting an eyelid, as if he couldn't actually understand the emotional value of what he was looking at. But this was different, she thought as she saw his thumb caress the corner of the page in a simple but telling motion. She looked up at him then and saw on his face all of the blatant emotion that had been poured into the piece.

He's in love with him, it occurred to her with absolute clarity. He's in love with Naruto and he probably doesn't even know it.

Right on top of that realisation came a sense of dread. What if Naruto had just been using Sai as a way to get off? Thinking that Sai of all people would never get emotionally attached?

She had been ready to beat the crap out of Sai a moment ago when she thought that he'd taken advantage of Naruto but now it was the other way around. She was going to have to have a nice long talk with Naruto about this, whether he wanted to or not.

"I won't tell Naruto about your picture, Sai" his head jerked up at the sound of her voice, he had obviously been lost in thought. "But I do think that you should tell him about it yourself. It's beautiful and he deserves to see it."

Sai thanked her and set about putting the sketchpad away (not before casting one last fond look at his picture Sakura noticed). They started eating again and Sakura realised that they hadn't addressed one important piece of the puzzle.

"Sai?" she asked and he looked up at her questioningly "What happened this morning when you both woke up?"

"He asked me the same question you did. About what happened after he fell asleep, I told him that nothing happened and he seemed satisfied. We were both aroused so…" he paused and looked at her closely "Did you want the specifics this time or just a basic outline?" At least he was learning, she thought to herself. She felt her cheeks and ears burning again.

"The basic idea would be fine, Sai"

"I suppose that it would be best summed up as mutual manual stimulation." Sakura resisted the urge to go back on what she had just said and insist on specifics after all "Afterwards Naruto said that he needed time to think about everything that happened and asked if he could use my shower, while he was in the bathroom I made breakfast. We ate together and Naruto complimented my cooking again, although I think he may have just been being polite…"

"I'm sure he was being honest." She said softly "what happened next?"

"Towards the end of the meal I asked him if we were still going to have our date on Saturday and he said that he would 'let me know' where he wanted to go. He became agitated after that, eating the rest of his food quickly before trying to leave as fast as he could."

_What the hell, Naruto?_ Sakura' fist clenched angrily around her chopsticks "He tried to leave? Just like that?"

Sai nodded solemnly "He had just gone through the door when I called after him and he stopped and turned back around…" Sai paused and Sakura couldn't help but notice the little sincere smile that was on his face. "He embraced me, and I kissed him, and then he left."

Sakura did a little internal fist pump of approval, Naruto was going up and down in her books like a yoyo today. They started packing everything up, Sakura re-wrapped the bento box and stood up before stepping back onto the main part of the roof.

"So, is this why you came to have lunch with me today?" she asked and Sai nodded "Why ask me, though?"

Sai looked confused at her question "Other than Naruto, you are my closest friend-"

Not that that was really saying much, Sakura thought to herself sadly. She appreciated the sentiment but despite how far Sai had come in recent years he still hadn't really endeared himself to anyone outside of Team Kakashi and Ino… and Ino's motivations when it came to Sai were less than pure. She smirked at the idea of telling Ino about Sai's current unavailability.

"-I read that friends are supposed to discuss their interpersonal relationships with each other and that they will give support and advice where appropriate." He paused for a second and tapped his chin with his finger thoughtfully "Although I wasn't sure if it would be worth it… considering your lack of romantic and sexual experience-"

She felt her eyebrow twitch and the bento box she was holding creaked alarmingly as her grip on it tightened

"-I'm surprised that your hymen hasn't grown back."

"Shanaro!" she growled as she sent the black lacquered box careening through the air and towards Sai's smiling face.

oOo

So there we have chapter three! Hopefully you guys enjoyed it.

Thanks to Afuri, Hikari Kaiya, Namantos and Savagebeauty for their lovely reviews. Reviews which helped motivate me to get the update finished and posted despite working six days this week and being unwell!


	4. Chapter 4

It was Saturday morning and Naruto had been hoping to sleep in until at least eleven. Unfortunately the person thumping on his door had other ideas.

A quick glance at the clock on his wall showed that it was only a little past eight, he groaned and hid his head under his pillow (although the fact that in his studio apartment the front door was less than four feet from his bed made it difficult to block out the noise), hoping that whoever it was would take the hint and fuck off. Minutes passed and it was becoming obvious that ignoring them wasn't going to work; if anything the knocking was just getting louder. The idea that it might actually be something important occurred to him and he begrudgingly sat up and called out "Give me a minute!"

That finally shut the asshole up and Naruto clambered out of bed, rubbing at the crust in the corner of his eye and cursing when he stepped on a discarded (and dirty) spoon on the floor. He swung the door open, all set to bite the head off of the person he found on the other side but felt his mood improve when he saw who it was.

"Sakura-chan!" he managed a sleepy smile. "What's up?"

"My shift starts in less than an hour and I wanted to talk to you before that" her tone was all business "Why were you still in bed anyway? We might not have a mission at the moment but you should be preparing for our training today. Taijutsu has never been your strong point."

"I was going to get up soon!" he lied and crossed his arms defensively. She just stood there with her hands on her hips; her mouth was drawn in a disapproving line and the silence dragged out as if she was waiting for him to say something else. He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. "Uh… Sakura-chan?"

"When were you going to tell me?"

Naruto was suddenly very awake. "Tell you what…?" Of course he knew what she was probably talking about, but he wasn't going to admit anything he didn't have to when she might actually be here about something else. It was better to be safe than sorry.

She frowned and exhaled loudly through her nose, obviously unimpressed "Sai came to see me the other day."

He was kicking himself for not asking Sai to keep it under wraps for a while; he had stupidly assumed that that was implied when he said that he needed time to think about things, but of course he couldn't expect Sai of all people to know that. He was _so_ not ready to talk about this with Sakura, especially this early in the morning, but it didn't really look like he had a choice. "Do you want to come inside?"

oOo

Sakura immediately regretted accepting Naruto's invitation into his apartment; the place was a complete pig sty. Unwashed dishes filled the sink and covered most of the kitchen surfaces, the wood of the table was barely visible under old magazines and various ninja tools, packets from instant ramen were scattered on the floor and around the overflowing bin. To top it all off she couldn't help but notice how the floor was slightly sticky under her sandals… how on earth could he live like this?

Naruto moved a pile of clothes from one of the chairs, plopping them unceremoniously onto the floor, before offering her a seat. She resisted the urge to wipe at the chair before sitting down; he leaned against the edge of the table beside her and refused to meet her gaze when she tried to catch his eye.

"I waited all yesterday, expecting you to come and talk to me." She said, not even trying to keep the hurt out of her voice.

"I was going to tell you, Sakura-chan, probably today… or maybe tomorrow… I just wanted to think about it a little bit…" He sighed and pushed away from the table to cross the room and open the fridge, he rooted around inside and grabbed a carton of milk. "How much did Sai tell you?" he asked while he poured them a glass each.

"I'm not going to repeat what he said-" she probably couldn't even if she wanted to "but I'll just say that he gave me a very… _detailed_ account of what happened on Wednesday night and Thursday morning…" she watched Naruto fumble and nearly drop the carton in his hand. "I'm pretty sure that he told me everything." Including at least one thing that Naruto didn't know about, she thought to herself as she remembered Sai's painting. She had been wavering on the subject, but seeing Naruto in person had made up her mind; she would stay true to her word and not tell Naruto about the picture, not just because she had promised but also because she couldn't stand the mortification of Naruto knowing what she'd seen… or even worse, what if he knew (somehow) that she'd _liked_ what she'd seen? That was just unacceptable. "But I'm not going to just take his word for it… I wanted to hear your side of the story."

His face was bright red when he placed the glass of milk in front of her and while she had never been much of a dairy fan she reached for the glass anyway. She was just glad to have something to do with her hands other than fidgeting in her lap. Naruto gulped his down in one go and Sakura couldn't help but smile when she saw the milk moustache he was left with, spoiling his look of pensive seriousness a little; he really was just a big kid sometimes.

Naruto cleared his throat awkwardly "We did some stuff while I was drunk" he paused for a moment and rubbed at his left arm self-consciously "But I'm not saying that I only let it happen because I was out of it… I mean, I was sober the morning after and I still… _you know_" she nodded to spare him the embarrassment of having to elaborate "Maybe it wouldn't have happened in the first place if there hadn't been booze involved, but I guess that at the end of the day that doesn't really matter…"

A few heavy seconds passed in silence and it didn't look like he was going to say anything else without prodding so Sakura spoke up softly "So, was it just a once off thing…?"

He looked a little startled by the question "I… I don't want it to be" his voice wavered a little "But I don't know what he wants…"

He looked so lost that it made Sakura's heart ache. She reached out and touched his forearm reassuringly "I don't think that you need to worry about that, Naruto" He looked up at her questioningly and she smiled "When I spoke to him about this it was plain to see how much he likes you" Hell, the more she thought about it the more she realised it should have been obvious long before that.

He smiled then, and even though it was small in comparison to his usual grin it still made her feel better. She was glad that her initial fears about Naruto using Sai had been totally unfounded.

She glanced at her watch and saw that she was going to have to leave soon if she didn't want to be late, but there was still one thing that she wanted to ask him about. Something that had been nagging at her ever since Sai had come to see her.

"I just always thought that you liked…" _me_, she willed herself to say it but chickened out at the last second "…girls"

He actually looked offended; puffing out his chest in a show of macho bravado "I _do_ like girls! I _love_ girls!" he cried "Sai is just…" he trailed off, looking confused again.

"An exception?" she offered and he nodded enthusiastically.

"Exactly!"

"So, what are you going to do now?" she asked "I mean, you haven't told him that you want to be in a relationship with him, have you?"

"Ah, Sakura-chan, don't put it like that" he said, blushing again "It sounds so…"

"Gay?" she couldn't keep from giggling when he pulled a face. "Seriously though, you weren't going to just show up for training today without having sorted this out, were you?"

"Maybe…" Naruto said shiftily and Sakura sighed, she couldn't even begin to imagine how badly that might have turned out.

"It's been two days, Naruto. You need to talk to him" she said, trying to catch his eye. He made a noncommittal sound in the back of his throat but she persisted "_Before_ we have training, okay?"

"Okay, Mom" he relented with an eye roll and a cheeky grin. She tried to look annoyed but couldn't quite manage it and ended up smiling back instead. Naruto had that effect on people.

She set her glass (still half full) back down on the table and stood up "Well, I really need to get to work."

He walked with her to the door and they stood awkwardly for a few seconds before she stepped forward and hugged him. His arms wrapped around her shoulders and his chin rested on her head, making her feel very small by comparison; it was so weird to think that he was actually shorter than her when they first met. When she pulled back a little she noticed how flustered he was and she felt strangely validated knowing that she could still affect him like that. Her eyes were drawn to what was left of the milk residue just above his upper lip and she was gripped by the sudden urge to kiss him.

But those thoughts lay in a direction that she knew she shouldn't go in, not now. She pulled away and the moment was gone just as quickly as it had surfaced, she said her goodbyes and asked Naruto to tell Sai that she said hello before leaving hastily.

Once the door was closed behind her and she had gotten about halfway down the hallway she stopped, her legs felt a bit shaky and she reached out to steady herself against the side of the stairwell. What was that all about? She had had years to act on the feelings she knew that Naruto had for her and it was awful of her to think about it _now_, when he was just getting into things with Sai. This was only compounded by the fact that she had a sneaking suspicion that a big part of why Naruto was looking more appealing to her was _because_ of his unavailability…

When she got down to the street and into the sunshine she felt a little bit better. She shouldn't be dwelling on the matter anyway, she reasoned. She would just try to be happy for her friends even if a small part of her was always going to wonder about what could have been.

oOo

Naruto took Sakura's advice to heart, she was right (of course) and it had been ridiculous of him to put this off until the last minute like this. He had gotten washed and dressed quickly, having some instant ramen for breakfast before heading to Sai's apartment. It would be simple enough, he thought, he'd show up at Sai's and say that he was willing to give the whole relationship thing a try. Then either Sai would accept (maybe they could even fit in a little fun before they had to show up for training) or he'd get shot down… he wasn't quite sure what he'd do if that happened. He'd probably ask Baa-chan if he could be assigned to a different team for starters and if that didn't work he was sure that life as a missing-nin wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be.

His plan hit a snag when he got there and after fifteen minutes of waiting around (and even climbing the front of the building to peek in through the windows) it was becoming obvious that Sai wasn't home.

He felt a little stupid when he realised that he had no idea where Sai spent his free time. Thinking about it, he was pretty sure that every time they had hung out together outside of work the location had always been decided by someone other than Sai. Searching Konoha in its entirety wasn't really an option but it looked like that was what he was basically going to have to do. He let out a long suffering sigh and headed in the direction of the dango shop. It seemed like as good a place to start looking as any.

oOo

Sai sat by the waterside at the training field most frequently used by his team. He had spent most of the morning practicing his jutsu (and trying to keep his mind off Naruto and how he hadn't seen him since Thursday) but now he was carefully inking his sketch of the family of ducks that were swimming on the other side of the river.

He was trying to decide what would be the best way to capture how the sun's rays brought out the green highlights in the mother duck's plumage when a shadow fell over his sketchpad.

"Hey, Sai" Naruto's voice came from directly behind him and he jumped a little in surprise. It was very poor form for him to have not noticed another ninja until they were right on top of him, especially when that ninja was Naruto (who was not exactly known for his stealth skills). It spoke volumes about how much all of this had been affecting him. Sai could almost hear Danzou lecturing him for letting emotions dull his shinobi training, even though the man had been dead for years.

He turned to look at Naruto at the same time that Naruto leaned down to peek at his sketch over his shoulder and they almost bumped noses. Their eyes met and Sai considered the way that his heart rate and breathing accelerated with interest. He toyed with the idea of leaning across the short distance and kissing Naruto but something held him back, he supposed that it was uncertainty. What if Naruto had decided that he didn't want anything more than a platonic relationship? Yes, what he was feeling was definitely best described as uncertainty… that and fear of rejection.

Naruto jerked back sharply as if he'd gotten an electric shock and landed heavily on his backside. Sai set his sketchbook to one side and turned so that they were facing each other; he reached out and rested a hand on Naruto's knee in concern, feeling surprisingly happy when he made no move to pull away "are you alright?"

Naruto grinned sheepishly, one hand rubbing the small of his back gingerly "uh… yeah, I think so"

"What are you doing here?" Sai asked curiously. He could tell from the position of the sun that it wasn't quite noon yet, meaning that there was still more than an hour until they (along with the rest of team Kakashi) were supposed to be meeting up.

Naruto scratched at his nose absentmindedly before he spoke "I just wanted to ask you where you wanted to go for our date tonight."

Sai felt his heart jump in his chest. Naruto had never outright referred to their outings as dates before. "I was thinking that you could come to my place" he started, the slightly shaky sound of his voice was alien to him and a little off putting but he pressed on regardless "I can cook for you again if you want."

Naruto was blushing and obviously (even to Sai) nervous but he held Sai's gaze when he spoke "and maybe I could stay over again…?"

oOo

Naruto watched Sai's eyes widen a fraction in surprise and silence hung heavily in the air for a moment. Naruto began to feel a little panicky and was just about ready to apologise and run for the hills with his tail between his legs when Sai leaned forward and pressed their lips together. He caught Naruto's lower lip between his teeth and bit down gently, Naruto groaned and Sai took the opportunity to slip his tongue into his mouth. Naruto didn't think he'd ever gotten so hard so fast in his life.

The hand that Sai had innocently placed on his knee earlier slid up the inside of his thigh, fingers ghosting over his erection before slipping under his t-shirt, his hand came to rest in the centre of Naruto's chest and applied gentle pressure there. Naruto took the hint and lay back on the grass; Sai came with him, straddling Naruto's hips and laying flush against him.

Sai's mouth was on his again and he answered the kiss hungrily. Naruto moved his hands down Sai's back, grabbing his ass and thrusting upwards so that their erections rubbed against each other in a way that made his eyes roll back in his head. "Fuck…" he moaned as Sai ground back down against him.

With another playful bite Sai broke the kiss and sat up, unzipping the front of his shirt and shrugging it off. It had been covered by Sai's high collar but now Naruto had full view of the love bite that stood out angrily against the pale skin at the base of Sai's neck; knowing that he was the one who put the mark there filled Naruto with an odd sense of self satisfaction and also made him feel strangely possessive. Naruto's grip on Sai's ass tightened for a moment before travelling up his sides, he ran his hands appreciatively over soft skin and hard muscle; pinching a pink nipple between his thumb and forefinger, he grinned mischievously when Sai inhaled sharply and shivered under his touch.

Sai tugged at the end of Naruto's shirt and he sat up a little so that Sai could pull the t-shirt over his head and toss it aside. The way that Sai looked at his bare chest with open hunger made a spike of arousal twist in the pit of his stomach and he decided that he'd had enough of the touching and teasing; he grabbed the waistband of Sai's pants, unbuttoning and unzipping them in quick rough movements (faltering only a little when he realised that Sai wasn't wearing anything underneath) before his hand wrapped around Sai's cock.

Naruto was feeling much more confident this time around and there was no hesitation in his movements despite the slightly awkward angle he had to hold his wrist at to get into a decent rhythm. Sai thrust back into each pump of Naruto's hand eagerly, moaning loudly when he used the pad of his thumb to tease at the head.

He maintained a relatively slow speed at first, appreciating the way that Sai's muscles flexed under his skin with each thrust but he began to pick up the pace when Sai was obviously getting close to orgasm; his breathing speeding up and his legs trembling. Every muscle in Sai's body suddenly stiffened and he came hard, crying out and spine arching as the first few shots of semen landed on Naruto's bare chest and the rest spilled over Naruto's still moving fist.

As Naruto withdrew his hand and tried to figure out what was going to be the best way to clean up, Sai surprised him by catching his wrist and drawing his hand up to his mouth. Naruto watched dumbfounded as Sai ran his tongue up the side of his palm and dipped it in between each of his fingers, getting every last drop of come before sucking the middle finger into his mouth and teasing at it with his tongue. Naruto felt his cock jump in anticipation at the promise that he saw in those dark eyes as Sai drew his mouth slowly up the digit in his mouth before releasing it with a wet pop.

Sai used his knee to part Naruto's thighs and settled between them, he kissed and licked his way down Naruto's chest and stomach stopping when he reached the waist of Naruto's pants. Sai undid the button and zipper with slow deliberate movements that were obviously designed with teasing in mind and Naruto was once again struck by just how differently Sai behaved in these situations. Although any higher thought slipped through Naruto's grasp when Sai freed his cock from his boxers and licked him from base to tip.

Naruto propped himself up on his (slightly shaky) elbows so that he could watch, Sai's eyes were open and he held Naruto's gaze as he slid his tongue seductively around the head of his cock and planted a soft kiss on the tip. Naruto bit down hard on his lower lip to keep from crying out as he was engulfed in that hot mouth; Sai's dark head bobbed up and down in his lap, his tongue working the underside of Naruto's cock expertly in a way that made his toes curl. At this rate he was not going to last long.

Sai drew back for a second and Naruto felt his heart leap a little in his chest when he saw the very small smile his friend was wearing. He was obviously up to something.

Naruto's eyes went wide like saucers as he watched Sai take him back into his mouth and inch all the way down until his nose was nestled in Naruto's pubic hair. Naruto made a small breathy sound (that sounded suspiciously like his teammate's name) and could barely fight the urge to thrust back as he felt the walls of Sai's throat contract around him.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck,_ _that felt amazing_, Naruto managed to think before Sai made another swallowing motion and it pushed him over the edge into an orgasm that was so intense it was almost painful.

All of the strength went out of his arms and Naruto collapsed back onto the grass, panting heavily. Sai crawled back up his body and caught his mouth in a lazy kiss; there was a salty twang to the kiss that Naruto knew was the taste of semen and he was surprised by how little that fact actually bothered him.

Laying there in the warm afternoon sun; completely satiated and with Sai cuddled up to him Naruto began to feel himself drifting off.

He was pulled rudely from the brink of sleep when a flock of birds suddenly took off from the top of one of the nearby trees. The beating of their wings and their twittering sounded incredibly loud to Naruto; it was enough to break through the afterglow and the fact that they were half naked, all over each other and in a semi-public place finally sunk in. Oh god, what if someone came along and saw them?

He sat up abruptly as if a fire had been lit under his ass, dislodging Sai in the process and scrabbling madly for his t-shirt. Once he pulled his shirt over his head he felt a lot better and was glad to see that Sai was following suit, albeit at a more relaxed pace, without any complaints. A quick glance at his watch showed that they had less than twenty minutes before training and, unlike Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan and Yamato-taichou usually made a point of being early. He may have decided that he wasn't going to hide this thing with Sai (whatever it was) but he wasn't quite ready to be caught with his pants down.

Sai stood up and gathered his inks, brushes and sketchpad from where they had been discarded at the riverside and put them away before returning to Naruto and sitting down beside him on the grass. A heavy silence fell between them and Naruto was struggling to think of something to say when he felt something brush against his hand. He looked down and saw Sai's hand next to his, their pinkie fingers overlapping.

Naruto couldn't help but smile at the small gesture; he sighed and leaned to the side so he could rest his head on Sai's shoulder.

"So, what were you planning on cooking for me later?"

oOo

Okay, guys there's the fourth chapter!

I have to apologise for taking so long to update but it was like the world was working against me, I swear! I had the flu (so much of this was written while I was out of my mind on flu meds and in a feverish delirium, so I hope that this chapter didn't suffer too much for it) and then I had no internet!

Anyway, thanks for your awesome reviews guys (Afuri, sahisdabest, yumi destroyer of worlds, Sanz0girl, Avid30, and Hephaistos). Seriously, you're the best!


	5. Chapter 5

Yamato arrived at the training field just under ten minutes before he was supposed to be meeting the others. This was why he was more than a little surprised when he saw that in addition to Naruto, Sakura and Sai that Kakashi had actually gotten here before him as well.

Naruto being here with time to spare was strange enough but in all the years they had worked together Yamato was hard pressed to think of a single time that Kakashi had actually been on time for their little training sessions… let alone _early_ for one.

"Ah, Yamato" Kakashi said, looking up from his copy of Icha Icha Tactics just long enough to nod in greeting "We were just discussing the match-ups for taijutsu training today. I was thinking that I would fight against Sakura and then Naruto and Sai can go up against each other."

Yamato frowned; he couldn't help but notice that he wasn't included in that scenario.

Even with his nose buried in his book Kakashi must have sensed Yamato's confusion and displeasure because he began to explain "I can't stay for long today, the Hokage wants to see me in an hour and besides… we both know that the kids are the only ones that need training."

Kakashi had said it almost as an afterthought and it was probably intended to rile Naruto up more than anything else but Yamato couldn't help but blush at the indirect compliment; he felt all of the irritation leave him just like that. And, in truth, even if he wasn't going to be doing any fighting it wasn't a completely wasted trip, at least he would be here if Naruto had any issues with the Kyuubi's chakra.

"Those are bold words, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said with a cocky grin, rising predictably to the obvious bait "Especially if you're fighting Sakura-chan." He shared a look with Sakura that showed just how confident they both were.

Kakashi sighed and closed his book, slipping it into his weapons pouch for safekeeping; he straightened his forehead protector so that his sharingan eye was exposed. "I'm going to have to ask you to hold back a little, Sakura. I don't want to have to explain to the Hokage that I missed my appointment with her because I was in the hospital."

Sakura nodded in agreement as she pulled on her gloves "Okay, Kakashi-sensei, but I won't go _too_ easy on you" her smile was confident and Yamato could see that her eyes were hard with determination.

Yamato retreated a safe distance, along with Naruto and Sai, to where they wouldn't have to worry about getting caught up in the crossfire but they would still be able to watch comfortably.

There was almost complete silence as Sakura and Kakashi stared each other down, both reluctant to make the first move and put themselves at a disadvantage. Minutes dragged on until Yamato saw Kakashi tense up in the unmistakeable (but easy to miss) way that indicated he was about to use the body flicker technique and get the fight started; not sure if it was out of kindness or the simple fact that he was short on time. Yamato blinked and the spot where Kakashi had been standing was empty; he reappeared directly behind Sakura, aiming a kick at the back of her knees to try and knock her off balance.

Sakura threw herself forward at the last second, tucking her limbs in and rolling neatly into a crouched position a few feet away. She had completely avoided the hit and even managed to throw Kakashi off enough that when she lunged back at him with one tightly clenched fist it came very close to clipping his ear.

Yamato was impressed. In terms of raw power Sakura was the strongest in their team when it came to taijutsu but she had always had a big problem covering for herself and was particularly vulnerable to any ninja that was skilled with the body flicker technique. Which was why she was almost always pitted against Sai or Kakashi for this type of training; exposing her to her biggest weakness was the best way to help her deal with it… and it was obviously working.

They watched as the fight continued in much the same fashion, Kakashi narrowly avoiding Sakura's attacks and countering with his own. Kakashi had managed to land a few hits but he was too busy playing defensive to do any meaningful damage. They had been fighting for almost half an hour and Yamato was beginning to wonder if they would just have to call it a draw when the unthinkable happened. Sakura had aimed a punch for Kakashi's face and while he managed to avoid the brunt of the blow he wasn't quite fast enough; her fist barely glanced off his shoulder but that was all it took.

Kakashi was pushed back violently by the force of the hit, lifting up off the ground and flipping once in the air; he came down hard and only barely managed to land on his feet. Kakashi was nowhere near incapacitated but they all knew that if Sakura hadn't been holding back her chakra-enhanced strength that Kakashi's shoulder (and probably a good portion of his ribcage) would have been shattered. He sat down on the ground and sighed heavily "Sakura wins".

"Maybe you need more training than you thought, Sensei" Sakura said cheekily, sticking her tongue out at him as Naruto ran over cheering loudly.

Yamato went to Kakashi's side "are you alright, Senpai?" he asked and offered Kakashi his hand.

Kakashi accepted it gratefully and pulled himself up with some effort. "I'm getting too old for this, Yamato" he said ruefully as he pulled his forehead protector back down to cover his sharingan eye.

"You're not old, Senpai. They've just gotten too strong and t-that's only because they have such a good teacher…" Yamato trailed off in embarrassment; that had sounded much better in his head. Kakashi looked at him strangely for a second before smiling and turning his attention back to the others; Yamato briefly wondered if he could melt into the ground without anyone noticing.

"Kakashi-sensei… do you want me to take a look at your shoulder?" Sakura asked, looking concerned.

"I'm fine, Sakura. The only thing that got injured was my pride" Kakashi answered, waving her off with a chuckle "Okay. Naruto, Sai it's your turn."

"Yosh!" Naruto did a few quick arm stretches before pointing at Sai and exclaiming "Get ready to lose!"

Sai didn't respond verbally and just dropped into a fighting stance instead; apparently deciding to forgo the trash talk.

Yamato, Kakashi and Sakura moved back to the tree line to watch. This fight started very differently from the last, there was no hesitation in the beginning as Naruto predictably and loudly ran straight in, fists flying. Sai stepped out of the way nimbly, turning as Naruto charged past him and delivering a well timed palm strike between his teammate's shoulder blades. It was a blow that was designed to knock the wind out of an opponent (if he had been fighting anyone else that is exactly what it would have done) but it barely fazed Naruto. He staggered only a little before spinning on his heels and lunging at Sai, trying to grab him around the waist and tackle him to the ground. Sai stepped backward so that Naruto's arms closed on nothing but air and then moved forward again, planting his hands firmly onto Naruto's shoulders. Yamato saw the way that Naruto's eyes widened comically as Sai vaulted over him with enough force to make him stumble and go down on one knee.

Naruto scrambled to his feet and faced Sai again, making another ineffectual lunge before crying out in frustration "Goddamn it, Sai! _Fight_ me!"

"I am fighting you, Naruto." Sai said blandly as he sidestepped Naruto's attempt to punch him in the face.

With Sai you could never be sure, but from where Yamato was standing it looked suspiciously like he was teasing his teammate… and if Naruto's stormy expression was any indicator he obviously thought so too.

"No, you're just dancing around!" Naruto growled "You're not even trying to hit me!"

"You… want me to hit you?" Sai asked quizzically.

"Yes!"

Sai didn't dodge Naruto's next punch and instead stood his ground, catching the fist and lashing out at his teammate. Sai kneed him, hard, in the stomach at the same time that Naruto brought his free hand around to punch Sai in the side. Yamato could see how much effort it took for them not to double over from the pain.

The fight continued like that for a while, each receiving a hit for almost every one that they dealt; at first glance it looked like they were evenly matched but Yamato knew differently. Naruto, with his almost endless stamina, was much more suited to outright brawling than Sai who was usually more inclined to play evasive; Yamato was a little confused as to why Sai had given Naruto such a large advantage in the first place.

"Come on, boys." Kakashi called out from beside him "It's time to wrap this up; if I don't see a winner soon then I'm going to have to call it a tie."

Naruto had just landed a particularly painful looking jab to Sai's kidneys and was obviously feeling confident "Just give me one more minute, Kakas-" Naruto stopped mid-gloat when Sai suddenly disappeared from in front of him.

Sai grabbed Naruto from behind with one arm, holding him still long enough to bring the sharp edge of his tanto to Naruto's neck with the other. Yamato was glad to see Sai play to his strengths instead of letting Naruto call the shots.

"Naruto, I think I win thi-"

Sai was cut off when Naruto arched his back violently, the back of his head cracking Sai in the face with enough force that Yamato heard it from where he was standing; he couldn't help but wince in sympathy. That _had_ to hurt.

Sai cried out and went sprawling, dropping his sword as he brought both hands up to cradle his mouth. Naruto wasn't far behind him and straddled Sai's chest, using his shins to pin Sai's arms to the ground before pressing the discarded tanto to his teammate's throat.

"Ha! I win!" Naruto crowed, throwing the sword aside and pumping his fist in victory.

Yamato rolled his eyes; Naruto was not exactly the most graceful winner in the world.

oOo

Sakura waited until Kakashi declared Naruto the winner before she jogged over to them. Naruto was still sitting on Sai's chest and revelling in his victory when she got there; she had to resist the urge to grab him by the scruff of the neck and pull him off.

"Naruto, get up so I can have a look at him."

Naruto did as he was told, shit-eating grin still in place as he moved to the side to let Sai sit up. She crouched down in front of Sai and caught his chin in her hand, tilting his head so that she could get a good look at the damage. His lip was split and bloody but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as she had feared. She had almost expected to be helping Sai pick his teeth up off the ground from how loudly the impact from Naruto's head had sounded earlier.

"Don't you think that that was a little extreme, Naruto?" she asked as she checked Sai's pupils. "What if you had broken his nose?"

"I'm fine, Sakura" Sai said "It was my own fault anyway; I should have seen that coming."

"I wasn't asking you" she said sternly "and you're supposed to be following my finger _not_ answering back."

"Ah, Sakura-chaaan" Naruto whined "I got hurt _too_ you know"

"We both know you'll be fine in the morning, Naruto. Stop complaining or I'll give you something to complain about" she threatened, but there wasn't any real malice behind it. She knew that she was being silly but she had kind of expected Naruto and Sai to go easy on each other now that their relationship had changed.

"I'm sure that he can think of some way to make it up to me." Sai said nonchalantly as he re-secured his tanto to his back.

Naruto made a spluttering sound and Sakura laughed nervously as she felt her face redden, she shot a furtive glance at Kakashi and Yamato to try and gauge their reactions. What Sai had said should seem completely innocent to their teachers… in all fairness, it _could_ have been completely innocent and she and Naruto just needed to get their minds out of the gutter. Yamato was looking a little confused, although that probably had more to do with her and Naruto's shifty behaviour than with what Sai had said. Kakashi just looked bored.

"Well, I have to get going. I'll leave the evaluation of today's training to you, Yamato." Kakashi said, disappearing in a puff of smoke before anyone could respond.

Yamato let out a long suffering sigh before he launched into their performance review.

oOo

Naruto had lain back on the grass when Yamato started talking and had begun to drift off; it wasn't until he heard the magic word that he perked back up.

"Huh… wha? Ramen?" he slurred, wiping the drool at the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

"I thought that might get your attention." Yamato was looking down at him disapprovingly "I just asked if you all wanted to go to Ichiraku for lunch now that training is finished."

Naruto jumped from his prone position to his feet in one smooth movement "You don't have to ask me twice! Sakura-chan, Sai are you coming too?"

"Since training was way shorter than I expected, I don't have any other plans…" Sakura said and Sai just nodded.

Naruto turned back to Yamato, grinning widely "Your treat, Yamato-taichou?"

Naruto's smile transformed into something more like a grimace when Yamato gave him his patented Scary Face "Don't push your luck, Naruto" he warned.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry." Naruto said hurriedly as he jogged to the exit of the training grounds, the others not far behind him.

oOo

Once they got to Ichiraku Ramen and had taken their seats Yamato ordered a tonkatsu ramen for himself. It was funny, when he had first become co-captain of Team Kakashi he hadn't been especially fond of ramen but years of being dragged here had made him tolerate and eventually even enjoy a few varieties of the dish.

He turned to look at the rest of his team, Naruto and Sakura were chattering to each other while Sai just sat there quietly and listened, his hands folded neatly in his lap.

"What have you got planned for today, Sai?" Yamato asked casually, wanting Sai to feel involved as well.

He was more than a little surprised when Naruto stopped mid sentence and spun on his stool so fast that he nearly fell off, his eyes were wide with panic and he was sporting a smile that was far too stiff to be real. He clapped one hand onto Sai's shoulder hard enough to make his teammate wince "He's not doing anything today." Yamato couldn't help but notice the way Naruto's grip tightened as he spoke "Right, Sai?"

"Um…" Sai began but then he closed his mouth again, obviously confused.

What were they up to? Yamato thought to himself with a frown. He was about to press the issue when Sakura spoke up.

"Oh, give it up, Naruto. You'll have to tell Yamato-taichou eventually… it might as well be now."

Naruto released Sai and slumped onto the counter, hiding his face in his folded arms. "But it's so embarrassing!"

"You're embarrassed of me?" Sai asked, seeming more baffled than offended.

Naruto shot back up into a sitting position in a way that would have given any normal person whiplash "No!" he cried "…that's not it. It's just embarrassing talking about it, okay?"

"Okay…" Sai looked even more confused now.

Sakura punched Naruto in the arm "Idiot, you are _so_ insensitive!"

Yamato still didn't know what was going on but he couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous they sounded "The way the three of you are talking you make it sound like a love confession!"

The rest of the laugh died in his throat when the three of them suddenly went very quiet; Naruto and Sakura were both blushing and avoiding his eyes. "What?" he asked, feeling entirely lost.

"That's not too far from the truth, Taichou" Sakura said before elbowing Naruto in the side "Right?"

Naruto grimaced and rubbed at the place that Sakura had jabbed him, when he spoke his voice was so low that Yamato had to strain to hear him "I have a date with Sai later, okay?"

Yamato felt like he understood even less now, he knew all about Naruto going on 'dates' with Sai as practice for the real thing. Why was Naruto being so evasive about something he already knew? It didn't make any sense. "I thought you guys had been doing this for weeks now? How is this any different?"

Naruto opened his mouth to say something but Sakura cut him off.

"This is getting ridiculous!"She cried, throwing her arms up in the air in exasperation "Yamato-taichou, they're _actually_ dating… as in, they are a couple now" she dusted her hands off as if she had just dealt with a particularly trying piece of business "There! I said it!"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed. Yamato noticed that he'd gone an even deeper shade of red, more importantly; he also noticed that Naruto didn't deny anything Sakura had said.

"Oh!" Yamato managed, not really sure of how to react in this situation. He knew that Naruto and Sai had been getting along better recently, but he never would have thought that they were getting along _that_ well. "… Congratulations?"

"Thank you." Sai said with a happy little smile. Sakura was giggling now and Naruto just groaned and covered his face with his hands.

Yamato had to resist the urge to start laughing again; something had just occurred to him that he needed to get out of the way first "Have you told the Hokage about this?"

"No, not yet." Naruto answered cautiously, his eyes were suspicious. "…Why?"

"It's standard procedure." Yamato explained "When people within the same team become romantically or sexually involved they have to be evaluated to make sure that it won't affect any missions they take together… Naruto, you have to understand that I can't, in good conscience, leave this little development out of my next progress report."

"You can't say anything about it, Yamato-taichou! She'd kill me for not telling her first!" Naruto looked genuinely upset by the idea and Yamato felt himself relenting.

"I shouldn't even be telling you this" Yamato said, keeping his voice low "But I report to the Hokage every Monday when we're between missions… you have until then to go see her and tell her yourself."

"Thank you, Yamato-taichou!" Naruto said with a grateful smile.

"And what about Kakashi-senpai?" Yamato asked "Have you spoken to him about this yet?"

"No…" Naruto admitted "I'll tell him next time I see him, okay? I promise."

Yamato nodded, satisfied for the moment; even if Naruto didn't keep his word Tsunade would make sure that Kakashi knew all about it after his report on Monday. Their food arrived and they tucked in eagerly, for a few minutes the only noise was the sound of them eating.

"So…" Yamato spoke up, his curiosity getting the better of him despite how awkward he felt "How long has this been going on?"

"Less than a week." Sai provided helpfully.

"And how did it happen? If you don't mind my asking that is."

Sai started to reply but Naruto was quick on the draw, clapping a hand over Sai's mouth before he could get out any more than a syllable.

"That bad, huh?" Yamato asked, eyebrows raised. He could feel heat creeping into his cheeks and he shook his head to clear it, this situation was surreal enough without him thinking about Naruto and Sai in compromising positions.

"Like you wouldn't believe" Sakura said solemnly without taking her eyes off her food.

oOo

Sakura stood up from the ramen stand, placing money beside her mostly empty bowl and stretching, exhaling deeply when her back popped satisfyingly. Yamato had finished as well and started getting ready to leave.

Naruto, on the other hand, was halfway through his fifth bowl and hungrily eyeing what was left in Sai's. He turned to look at her and said something indecipherable through a mouth full of noodles.

"What?" she asked, unimpressed with his lack of etiquette.

He hurriedly chewed and swallowed what was in his mouth before trying again "You guys are leaving already?"

"It's getting late, Naruto." She explained as if she was speaking to a small child. "Not all of us can just sit around eating ramen all day."

Naruto sulked and picked up another large helping of noodles with his chopsticks, he was just about to shovel them into his mouth when Sai stood up as well. "Sai, you're leaving too?"

"I have to go shopping" Sai said simply "I can't cook for you if I don't have any food"

"I guess" Naruto said forlornly, sulking even more and turning his attention back to his food.

"I'll see you at six." Sai leaned down and planted a kiss on the corner of Naruto's mouth.

Sakura felt like she flushed from the tips of her toes all the way to the top of her head and she had to snap her mouth shut when she realised she'd been gaping. Yamato just blushed and averted his gaze, pretending to look through his wallet.

"Don't do stuff like that in public!" Naruto cried and shoved Sai away, his face had gone beet red but Sakura noticed that he didn't really look anywhere near as annoyed as he let on.

Sai had obviously noticed as well since he looked surprisingly happy for someone who had nearly been pushed off his feet. He waved to her and Yamato (who was still rifling through his wallet aimlessly) before setting off down the street.

Yamato was the next to leave, mumbling something about Naruto making sure that he went to go see the Hokage as he went.

Sakura leaned over so she could get a look at Naruto's face and saw that he was wearing a very small smile "What are you so happy about?" she teased.

He blinked up at her in surprise before remembering that he was supposed to be angry "N-nothing!" he said, squinting and scrunching his face up into a frown.

"You don't need to pretend, Naruto." She said, giggling behind her hand "I'm happy for you."

Naruto smiled a little self-consciously and rubbed at the back of his head "Thank you, Sakura-chan."

"Okay, well, enjoy your date tonight." She said, waving cheerfully as she swung her bag onto her back and turned away from the ramen stand.

"Bye, Sakura-chan!" he called after her.

oOo

"Are you going to have another bowl, Naruto?" Teuchi asked as he wiped the counter down.

Naruto sat back on his stool and patted his stomach proudly "Nah, I think that ten's enough for today, old man." He figured that he should probably try and keep some room for his dinner with Sai later.

He took Gama-chan out of his pocket and hefted it in his hand; it was still surprisingly fat and full of money this long after being paid. Making Sai pay for their food over the last few weeks probably had something to do with that… now that they were actually dating for real he supposed that he should stop taking advantage of Sai's generosity. He counted out the money for the bill and even left a tip since he had so much extra cash.

The walk home was pleasant enough, there was a light breeze and the sun was warm on his back. He knew that he had a grin plastered on his face the whole way home and he received a few curious looks for it, but he didn't care; the prospect of a home cooked meal and what they would probably get up to afterwards buzzing through his mind.

He hummed tunelessly under his breath as he unlocked his front door and stepped into his apartment and there was a spring in his step as he made his way to his small bathroom. He turned on the shower, undressing quickly and leaving his clothes in a crumpled heap on the floor before he stepped under the spray to scrub away all of the sweat and dirt that he had accumulated during training earlier. As he washed he noticed a few bruises here and there from his fight with Sai (one particularly nasty one stood out just below his sternum) but they were already turning yellow and he knew that most of them would be gone by tonight.

Once he was clean he went back into the main living area, towel drying his hair roughly and dripping all over the floor as he hunted for something to wear amongst the pile of (mostly) clean clothes beside his bed. He was fast coming to the realisation that outside of the clothes that he normally wore for missions that his entire wardrobe consisted of hoodies, baggy t-shirts (of various colours but all with the same spiral design) and orange pants… it was kind of depressing and said a lot about how active his dating life had been before this week.

In the end he just picked the ones that smelled the cleanest and were the least creased, spraying himself liberally with deodorant before throwing them on. He gave himself a quick onceover in the mirror before leaving.

It was nearly time for him to head to Sai's place but he had to make one stop first. He headed in the direction of the nearest liquor store; he was going to need some Dutch courage for what he wanted to do tonight.

oOo

Sai checked the pot of broth on top of the stove, stirring the contents carefully before re-covering it. He was making miso ramen for Naruto, with extra pork; he assumed that this particular variety was Naruto's favourite since it was what he typically ordered when they were at Ichiraku and he only had enough money with him to buy one bowl.

He had watched Teuchi and Ayame prepare the dish closely today during lunch and he thought he had a pretty good grasp of the recipe. They had used large amounts of miso and fish broth as the base, coupled with fatty pieces of pork, boiled eggs, fish cakes and finally the noodles. The only vegetable that he'd seen them add was a finely chopped onion and Sai had to wonder at the nutritional value of such a concoction. That was why he had decided to make a few small additions to the recipe, namely adding a chopped bell pepper, leaks, bean sprouts and another onion to go with the first.

Even if Naruto refused to eat the vegetables themselves (and he had seen Naruto pick around them when they were in other dishes) the fact that they were being boiled meant that a good portion of the nutrients would be in the broth anyway, Sai reasoned as he chopped the pepper.

Once he was finished preparing the vegetables he added them to the broth and set about making his own food. He had decided on something simple for himself since he was still rather full from such a large lunch, throwing together some fried rice with vegetables and tofu.

He was just serving the food when there was a knock at the door, his heart sped up and he experienced the strange almost queasy (but not entirely unpleasant) feeling in the pit of his stomach that he'd come to expect whenever contact with Naruto was imminent. The books that he'd read on the subject said that this was normal at the start of a relationship so he wasn't too worried.

When he opened the door he was a little surprised when Naruto handed him a paper bag before pushing into the apartment; Sai heard the sound of glass clinking against glass as he accepted it.

"I just brought some sake and plum wine." Naruto explained, bending down slightly to pull his sandals off "Since I drank so much of yours last time…"

"Thank you." Sai said, knowing that it was the polite thing to say even though he had already replaced the two bottles of sake that they had drunk on Wednesday night and he wasn't especially fond of plum wine.

He was just about to turn around and bring the bottles into the kitchen (and finish serving the food) when Naruto herded him up against the wall, resting his forearms on either side of Sai's head and boxing him in.

He opened his mouth in question but Naruto kissed him roughly before he could get a word out. Sai could taste that Naruto had already been drinking; it was a little surprising but it certainly explained why he was being so uncharacteristically forward. Naruto wedged his knee between Sai's legs and forced them apart, pressing their hips flush against each other.

Arousal twisted low in the pit of Sai's stomach, he felt something hard brush against his own half erection and it was with great reluctance that he broke the kiss. "The dinner is going to go cold"

"Ah, yeah" Naruto said, pulling back and reaching into his pants to readjust himself. "I guess we should eat first."

They ate dinner in the living room and chatted about their training, or rather Naruto gloated and Sai just listened politely; content to let Naruto exaggerate the scale of his victory and his fighting prowess. When Naruto decided that he wanted something to drink Sai retrieved a bottle of his own sake and the wine that Naruto had brought with him. He was a little relieved when Naruto kept the bottle of plum wine beside his bowl for the entire meal (obviously intending to drink the whole thing himself) and that he wouldn't have to force himself to drink any of it out of courtesy.

He couldn't help but marvel at how much food that Naruto managed to put away in one sitting; eating three servings of ramen in the same amount of time that it took for Sai to eat his considerably smaller meal. He also noticed that Naruto ate most of the vegetables that he had added to the ramen and he felt a dull warm feeling is his chest that he found hard to identify. He catalogued the sensation in the back of his mind for reference next time he was in the library.

He rose, planning on collecting their dishes and bringing them into the kitchen but Naruto had other ideas. He jumped up from the couch; Sai's sharp eyes caught how Naruto wobbled on his feet for a fraction of a second before advancing on him.

oOo

They stumbled into the bedroom, still kissing the whole time as they pulled off each other's clothes; leaving a trail as they made their way to the bed. Naruto tripped and fell when his foot got caught in the leg of his underwear, landing on the bed and pulling Sai down on top of him. They went down in a tangle of limbs and Naruto felt a giggle bubble up in the back of his throat; fortunately the urge passed when Sai started kissing him again and pressed their erections together.

Naruto kicked his underwear off his ankle with one foot and pushed them off the edge of the bed. They were both completely naked now and he ran his hands down the smooth skin of Sai's back to cup his ass; delivering an open palmed slap to one muscled buttock in appreciation. Naruto grinned when his teammate yelped in surprise and he bit down on Sai's lower lip, relishing the metallic taste of blood and hiss of pain that he got in return, knowing that he had reopened the wound there.

"You said that you wanted me to make this up to you, right?" Naruto asked, sweeping his tongue across the cut again for emphasis and making Sai shudder.

Naruto didn't give Sai a chance to answer as he rolled them over in one fluid motion so that he was on top. The blood on Sai's lips stood out garishly against his pale skin like smeared lipstick and Naruto resisted the urge to lean back down and lap it up. He knew that he had to do this before he lost his nerve.

He pressed his lips to Sai's collar bone and started kissing his way down Sai's chest and stomach (pausing only to catch a nipple between his teeth and bite down) as he worked his way down the bed. When he was finally face to face with Sai's cock he gulped audibly, feeling trepidation flutter in the pit of his stomach. They hadn't actually measured or anything (not yet anyway) but he could see that Sai was pretty much the same size as him; despite this fact he still couldn't help feeling intimidated as he grasped the base of Sai's erection in his hand and eyed it nervously.

The bed creaked as Sai propped himself up on his elbows and looked down at him, one dark eyebrow arched in a question. Naruto felt himself flush and he resisted the urge to tell Sai not to watch; even if he was embarrassed, saying something like that just seemed so… _girly_.

It was now or never. Still painfully aware of the eyes on him, he swallowed what was left of his pride and leaned forward to tentatively run his tongue up the underside of Sai's cock. Emboldened when Sai inhaled sharply in response Naruto repeated the action with a little more confidence, teasing the tip of Sai's cock with his tongue and licking up the little bead of pre-come that had formed there. He considered the taste for a second (a little on the salty side, but not bad) before sliding his mouth as far down the length of Sai's erection as he could manage.

Each time he pulled back up he tried to mimic the way that Sai massaged the underside of his cock with his tongue when he was giving him head; he must have been doing a reasonably good job if the way that Sai was gasping and moaning beneath him was any indicator. It took Naruto a while to find a comfortable rhythm but once he got into one he was finding it hard to remember why he had been so worried about doing this in the first place.

Naruto was just really beginning to lose himself in the whole experience when Sai shifted under him and sat up. "What?" Naruto asked, confused and a little worried that he'd done something wrong. Although it became clear what Sai was getting at when he moved so that they were laying side by side, facing each other but with their feet at opposite ends of the bed.

Sai wasted no time, engulfing Naruto's cock in his mouth and sucking eagerly. "Gah! …Fuck!" Naruto gasped and rested his forehead against Sai's bare hip, the sudden and intense stimulation to his so far neglected arousal nearly pushing him over the edge.

Sai drew back again, holding Naruto's gaze as he licked his lips seductively and then dragged his tongue up the entire length of Naruto's cock. Naruto made a pleading sound in the back of his throat but Sai made no move to continue and instead thrust his own erection into Naruto's face in a blatant order. Naruto's eyebrows shot up in surprise but he complied without argument (he had a feeling that he'd do much worse things right now if it just meant that Sai would put him out of his misery), taking Sai's cock back into his mouth and groaning loudly around it when he felt Sai start to suck him off again.

Naruto found that giving head while someone was sucking your cock at the same time was much more difficult than he expected… fortunately, it was also about a hundred times hotter than he ever would have thought it could be. Naruto could feel the start of his orgasm curling in his stomach but held back, determined to hold out until Sai came; he slid his hand up the inside of Sai's thigh and cupped his balls, massaging them roughly as he picked up the pace with his mouth. His relentless assault had the desired effect; it wasn't long before every muscle in Sai's body was trembling with approaching orgasm.

Naruto felt Sai's cock pulse in his mouth as the first shot of come hit the back of his throat and he swallowed without even thinking as his own orgasm ripped through him and left him shaking.

He flopped onto his back, feeling completely boneless and gasping desperately for air. Sai lay down next to him, resting his head on Naruto's chest and draping an arm across his midsection.

"That was amazing." Naruto said when he finally found his voice.

"Mmm" Sai responded, he sounded sleepy and satisfied.

It really wasn't an exaggeration, Naruto thought to himself as he combed his fingers through Sai's hair absentmindedly. There was something about being inside of each other at the same time that had been more intense and way more intimate than anything they had done before. Naruto could only imagine what it would be like if they went all the way and he felt his cock perk up a little again at the thought of actually fucking Sai.

Sai's breathing had evened out in a way that told Naruto that he'd gone to sleep and he used his free arm to grab the rumpled sheet to cover them. He pulled Sai a little closer and yawned, his eyes felt very heavy all of a sudden and he closed them gratefully.

oOo

The first thing that Naruto became aware of as he woke up was the sound of two different voices speaking in hushed tones; this would usually be cause for alarm but both of the voices were almost as familiar as his own. He rubbed at his eyes sleepily before opening them, half expecting to see a burnt out campfire when he did. What he saw instead sent his heart into his throat.

He took in the fact that he was in Sai's room and that the owner of said room was standing (fully dressed) by the window. This in and of itself wasn't an issue.

No, the thing that had made Naruto feel like he was going to have a heart attack was that Kakashi was crouched in the open window, that and the realisation that he was naked except for the sliver of sheet covering his nether regions. He grabbed the material and pulled it up to his chin in a quick panicky motion, alerting the room's other occupants to the fact that he was awake.

"Good morning, Naruto." Sai said, smiling happily and obviously not embarrassed by the situation in the least.

"Yo." Kakashi said simply, pitching him a little salute in greeting.

"Kakashi-sensei" Naruto said, trying to regain some of his composure "What are you doing here?"

"The Hokage has a mission for the five of us." He explained "I've been to see Yamato and Sakura and they're already on their way to see Tsunade-sama. This was my next stop because I knew I'd probably find both of you here."

"What?" Naruto managed to croak "Why would you think I'd be here?"

Kakashi gave him a look that clearly showed how little he thought of the question "You haven't exactly been discrete, Naruto… If you're so concerned with privacy then you should probably stick to using the training grounds for _training_."

"Oh…" Naruto said in a very small voice and pulled the sheet up even higher so it was covering most of his face. "You saw that, huh?"

"Indeed, I did." Kakashi answered, smiling again "Now, I think it's time you got dressed. We don't want to keep the others waiting."

oOo

A/N

Okay this chapter took forever to finish. There's a big chunk in the middle (from after Sakura leaves the ramen stand to where the smut starts) that just refused to be written. I'm still not entirely happy with that part but it wasn't going to get any better with me just staring at it .

So, I managed to get some action scenes in there and hopefully they weren't too crappy. They're going on a mission next chapter so expect some actual plot that doesn't solely revolve around embarassing Naruto and pr0n (which is what I'm beginning to feel my story has turned into...)

(spoilers if you've been living under a rock and haven't read that latest arc) I've been holding off having Yamato appear because of his current predicament in the manga but I decided to throw caution to the wind and assume that Kishimoto wont kill him off. Some vague KakaYama hints managed to creep into this chapter but I haven't really decided if I want to pursue that angle just yet... so feedback would be appreciated.


	6. Chapter 6

With the way that Kakashi had hurried her this morning Sakura had not expected to be waiting this long for the Hokage to show up for their mission briefing. She had gotten here almost half an hour ago, Yamato had arrived not long after her and then maybe ten minutes ago Kakashi had reappeared with Sai and Naruto in tow. The way that Naruto kept shooting angry and slightly mortified looks at Kakashi (who was ignoring Naruto completely in favour of listening to Yamato talk about some obscure aspect of the architecture of the building) told Sakura all she needed to know about the circumstances that Kakashi had probably found her teammates under when he went to fetch them this morning.

It was for the best really, she thought to herself. Keeping secrets from your teammates (especially your team captain) was never a good idea.

Finally she heard the sound of heels clicking in the hallway and stood up quickly from where she had been sitting on the floor.

The door banged open violently and Sakura bowed deeply in greeting when Tsunade marched into the office (Shizune close at her heels). She felt the familiar twinge of annoyance when Naruto didn't do the same.

"I hope you've got a super awesome mission for us, Baa-chan" Naruto started eagerly "I haven't been out of the village for weeks!"

Sakura didn't approve of his methods but Naruto was right, she couldn't think of the last time they'd gone this long between missions. If she hadn't had her work at the hospital to keep her busy she probably would have gone stir crazy by now.

Tsunade ignored him, striding past them and coming to a stop behind her desk; she slapped her palms down against the wood with enough force to make everything on the surface of the desk jump, the stack of papers closest to her tilted perilously to one side and Shizune quickly stepped forward to save them before they could go skittering over the edge.

Any thoughts about Naruto's inability to show proper respect to his superiors or their recent lack of work slipped from Sakura's mind when she saw just how serious the Hokage looked.

"Team Kakashi!" Tsunade barked and everyone in the room hastily stood to attention, she surveyed them with sharp eyes before speaking again "This morning at approximately ten o'clock an attempt was made on my life-"

"Shishou!" "Hokage-sama!" Sakura and Yamato both exclaimed at the same time.

"Who was it?" Kakashi asked in a much calmer tone of voice.

Tsunade's scowl deepened and she made an annoyed noise through her teeth "It was two of my own ANBU."

The statement hung in the air for a moment, the full extent of it sinking in. ANBU were the shinobi closest to the Hokage, personally selected not only for their skill and discretion but also for their loyalty… for two of them to betray Tsunade meant that she couldn't trust _any_ of them.

There were only a handful of ninja that the Hokage could count on if her ANBU had been compromised and a good portion of them were standing in this room; it was suddenly very obvious why Tsunade had requested Team Kakashi specifically. "They've been imprisoned and Ibiki is pumping them for information as we speak, but there isn't really much point. I already know who they work for and where to find them-"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Naruto cried and Sakura could see that he was shaking with anger. She couldn't blame him; she wasn't exactly calm herself.

"Naruto-kun" Shizune piped up "you can't just go charging in without knowing what you're up against"

Naruto grit his teeth and clenched his hands tightly into fists at his sides but he didn't argue any further.

"As I was saying-" Tsunade started again; aiming a particularly withering glare at Naruto before she continued "for the past month we've been keeping tabs on an underground movement that want to wrest power from me and take Konoha for themselves. They seem to have an issue with the Third Hokage and his policies in particular… which isn't surprising considering the origins of this group lie with Danzou and what remains of Root."

Everyone in the room had turned their attention to Sai but his expression remained blank and unreadable, the fact that all eyes were on him either went unnoticed or he just didn't care. Sakura couldn't help but wonder why Tsunade had decided to involve Sai in this mission at all; surely his loyalty would be suspect if they were dealing with people that were part of Root?

As if Tsunade had read her mind she addressed Sai directly "I've had you under surveillance for the entirety of this investigation and while this whole fiasco has made it clear that I can't be 100% positive about these things, I am quite sure that you haven't been involved in any plot to overthrow me. Am I right in thinking so?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama" his response was immediate and accompanied by one of his fake smiles. Sakura felt awful when she realised she wasn't sure if she believed him.

Yamato opened his mouth to say something but Tsunade raised a hand and he closed it just as quickly "I know that including Sai in this mission is risky, regardless of where his loyalties lie, but Danzou was a secretive old bastard with a lot of tricks up his sleeve and having someone who used to be a member of Root with you is an advantage that we can't afford to pass up. Understood?"

"Understood"

"As you all know, shortly after Danzou's death I officially disbanded Root and all of the former members were evaluated to see if they were fit to return to duty. More than half of them had to be demoted to ranks lower than ANBU or completely discharged, of course we expected some kind of backlash at the time but years have passed without so much as a peep from them… that was until we received reports of unauthorised shinobi activity on the outskirts of the country a few weeks ago."

"How have they gone unnoticed for so long?" Sakura asked.

"Their base of operations is close to the eastern border of Fire country; the area is mostly dense forest, a few abandoned settlements and disused trade routes so there is very little to no civilian traffic. Of course I send ANBU out on border patrol every few weeks… but it's become obvious that the reports that I was given may not have been entirely _accurate_…"

"How did you find out about them then?" Naruto spoke up again and Sakura was glad to hear that he'd calmed down a bit.

"I was just getting to that, brat!" Tsunade admonished "An old man came to us because he had heard that there were people scavenging in what was left of one of the temples out there. He wanted us to find and capture the scavengers, simple enough and a D-rank mission at best so I sent a team of genin out there…" Tsunade paused and looked at them thoughtfully. Sakura's heart was thumping loudly in her ears and she swallowed thickly; she didn't need to see the others to know that they were all probably wearing identical expressions of concern. The idea of three genin and their sensei going up against rogue ANBU was almost a joke; it wouldn't be a battle, it would be a massacre.

"Don't worry, the kids are safe." Tsunade said and Sakura released the breath that she hadn't realised she was holding "It was Hyuuga Neji's team; they're fresh out of the academy and nowhere near ready to fight other ninja, if they had had any other jounin with them then they might not have been so lucky. Neji spotted the enemy long before they could have seen him or his team and rather than risk investigating a potential threat with three rookies in tow he doubled back to report what he saw."

When had Neji been assigned a team? Sakura wondered to herself. He _had_ been a jounin for over four years now but it was still unusual for a ninja to take on a team of genin before they were in their mid to late twenties; if at all. She wanted to ask about it but knew that this wasn't really the best time… she could always get the scoop off of Ino when she got back from this mission anyway.

"Word has probably already reached them that the assassination attempt this morning was a failure and that two of their allies are currently in the care of the interrogation squad; this means that we've lost the element of surprise." Tsunade said gravely "Early intelligence suggests that there are usually no more than fifteen to twenty individuals in their base camp at any one time, this coupled with the fact that they'll be expecting an attack means that a small team that can infiltrate the enemy encampment without being noticed is more preferable to sending a larger force. I need to know how many of my people are actually working with them and I need to know as soon as possible; it would be best if you could get in and out with this information without actually engaging them in combat"

"You don't want us to fight them?" Naruto asked incredulously.

Sakura saw the way that Tsunade's eyebrow twitched and knew that Naruto was walking on thin ice; training under the Hokage had made her hyper aware of the little tells that indicated when her master was very close to losing her temper. It was only natural that Tsunade would be a little less patient with Naruto than she usually was, considering the circumstances.

Tsunade pointed at Naruto with one perfectly manicured finger and when she next spoke her tone was dangerous "Speak out of turn again, Naruto, and Team Kakashi will be going on this mission as a four man cell while you scrub bathrooms in the academy with a toothbrush… and no kage bunshins to help you. Do I make myself clear?"

Naruto stared back at the Hokage, still looking defiant and Sakura tried her best to make him keep his mouth shut with sheer force of will alone. Wonders never cease, Sakura thought to herself with relief when he broke eye contact and looked down at the floor petulantly; obviously realising that this was not an argument that he was going to win.

"After you return I will, hopefully have all the information that I need to assemble a force to deal with this problem" she paused and pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger "You need to come to terms with the fact that you will most likely find out that people that you know… people that you thought you could trust might be a part of this."

Sakura knew that for her and Naruto that wasn't really a big risk, even if their identities _were_ kept secret she was pretty sure that no one out of their circle of friends had made ANBU. Kakashi and Yamato on the other hand would probably not be so lucky.

Shizune moved from her spot beside Tsunade's desk and handed Kakashi a scroll that Sakura assumed contained a truncated version of what they had just been told, a summary of the intelligence that Tsunade's agents had gathered in the past few weeks and a map to their target.

"Is that everything, Hokage-sama?" Yamato asked.

"No, I have one more issue that I'd like to address before you leave" she said, leaning back in her chair and stretching. It was only for a second but Sakura noticed the ghost of a smile that pulled at the corners of Tsunade's mouth before she spoke again. "The second that the five of you return from this mission there will be a team evaluation and it will be _mandatory_. I'd have arranged for you to have one now if there weren't more pressing matters that need to be dealt with first."

"Why do we need to be evaluated?" Sakura asked, although she had a sneaking suspicion that she already knew the answer to her question.

"_Fraternisation_ within a squad can adversely affect the team dynamic-"

"Baa-chan, I don't even know what that word _means_!" Naruto cried, his face scrunched up in a disgruntled frown.

Sakura cringed in anticipation of her master's explosive reaction to being interrupted again but she was surprised when Tsunade just laughed under her breath instead. Sakura looked up warily but was relieved when she saw genuine amusement on Tsunade's face; it was good to see her in better spirits… even if it was at Naruto's expense.

"I think she's referring to our relationship, Naruto." Sai provided, looking a little confused by The Hokage's sudden mirth.

"Oh…" Naruto said, turning from Sai and back to Tsunade who looked like she was trying to stifle another laugh behind the back of her hand "Oh!" Naruto said again, realisation finally dawning in his eyes as he turned more red with every passing second. He spun on his heels and pointed an accusatory finger at Yamato before almost screeching "You said that you'd wait until I told her first!"

Yamato took a step backward, raising his hands in a defensive gesture and smiling sheepishly "I haven't said anything to anyone, Naruto."

Naruto didn't look convinced and was just about to launch into another tirade when Tsunade spoke up.

"I already told you that I've had Sai under surveillance, Naruto" she explained "I'm sure you can guess how difficult it is to tail someone with ANBU training without them noticing so I had to choose someone even better for the job."

"Ah, thank you for your praise, Hokage-sama" Kakashi said, the corner of his visible eye crinkled in a smile. "Although I did end up observing more than I bargained for"

Sakura's eyes flicked from Kakashi to Naruto when he made a weird choked noise. She couldn't help but smile to herself; she _almost_ felt sorry for him.

"I read _all_ about it in your report." Tsunade said with a chuckle. "The part about what happened yesterday before training was particularly interesting."

Her interest piqued, Sakura wondered if she could get Sai on his own at some point later and ask him _what_ exactly was so interesting.

"_Baa-chaaaan_" Naruto whined and Tsunade relented.

"Okay, Okay, you're dismissed. Go gather what you need for the mission; I want the five of you out of the village before three. Understood?"

"Understood!" they said in unison, Sakura bowed again before leaving.

oOo

Yamato leaned against the wall just inside the village gate and closed his eyes as he tried to drown out the sound of Sakura and Naruto squabbling about what sounded like manners or being polite. He heard Sai pitch in at one point only to be silenced aggressively by an angry sounding Sakura. Yamato sighed heavily, for two nineteen year olds they still managed to behave remarkably like small children sometimes.

"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto cried out together and Yamato didn't need to open his eyes to know that Kakashi had finally arrived.

"It's not three just yet" Kakashi said simply. A quick look at his watch showed Yamato that Kakashi was right, even if he had made it here just thirty seconds before the deadline.

"We've been waiting here for nearly an hour, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura said disapprovingly.

"I had some business to take care of…"

"Liar!" Naruto and Sakura chorused. Yamato winced and wondered if this was something that they were really going to have to do at the start of almost every mission. It was really beginning to wear thin.

Kakashi just laughed them off before speaking again in a more serious tone "If we travel through the trees and make as few stops as possible we should reach our destination in less than two days."

Naruto ran towards the exit of the village and called out enthusiastically "Come on! What are we waiting for?"

Yamato pushed away from the wall and smiled. He supposed that their youthful exuberance could be endearing sometimes too.

oOo

Once they left the area that immediately surrounded the village they travelled in relative silence on the very small chance that there might be enemies nearby. They were making good time despite getting caught in a summer shower that had drenched them to the bone and slowed them down considerably, they had still covered over a quarter of the journey in six hours. The sun had set, they were cold and they hadn't made any stops so far (other than the odd toilet break) so when Kakashi saw a patch where the trees were sparse up ahead he signalled for his team to stop.

"We'll make camp here for the night" he said as they landed beside him in the clearing "Sai, Naruto and Sakura I want you to check the perimeter and gather some firewood." The three of them shot off in different directions and Kakashi turned his attention to Yamato. "I'll leave the camp to you, Yamato… although I don't want anything too high profile."

Yamato nodded before quickly forming the necessary hand seals and slamming his palm down against the ground. Kakashi watched as wood burst up from the ground and knit together neatly to form five small separate shelters in a circle. It wasn't going to be anywhere near as comfortable as the almost mansions that Yamato usually made for their away missions but it was still better than sleeping in the open air, especially if it started raining again.

"Good work" he said, smiling and pitching the other man a thumbs up.

"Thank you, senpai." Yamato replied, sounding a little embarrassed and looking inordinately happy with himself.

Kakashi eyed Yamato for a few seconds; wondering how his co-captain could still manage to be flattered to the point of blushing by such simple praise when they had been working together for years.

Kakashi's train of thought was interrupted when his stomach growled loudly "…I'm going to go and see if I can find us some food." he said as he headed for the edge of the clearing.

oOo

Naruto jogged back towards base camp with the largest armful of branches he could carry, proud that he had managed to find so many that were dry, unfortunately they obscured his view of the ground and he didn't notice the exposed root in his path until he caught his toe on it. He lost his balance and let out a cry as he landed (face first) on the ground with a thump, several of the branches breaking under him with the force of the fall.

He groaned and was just about to push himself up when he heard a soft chuckle to his left. He looked up and saw Sai standing there holding his own firewood and watching him with a small smile.

"Don't just stand there! Help me up!" Naruto grumbled, pushing himself to his knees and pulling at a twig that had become tangled in his hair.

Sai shifted his branches to one side, supporting them on his hip and holding them in place with one arm before he offered Naruto his free hand "Are you hurt?" he asked, although Naruto was sure that he heard more amusement in the question than concern.

Naruto took Sai's hand and grinned up at him mischievously before pulling hard. Sai's eyes went wide as he lost his footing and fell forward; he put his other hand out to save himself (dropping his firewood in the process) and barely managed to avoid repeating the spectacular face-plant that Naruto had executed moments before, instead landing on his knees in the dirt beside Naruto with a surprised grunt.

"You did that on purpose" Sai stated, sounding a little hurt.

"Not so funny now, is it?" Naruto snickered.

Sai just looked confused now "If it's not funny then why are you laughing?"

That just made Naruto laugh even harder and he had to clap one hand over his mouth to try and muffle the sound, knowing that he shouldn't be making so much noise; not if he didn't want to attract any unwanted attention to their camp.

Sai continued to look at him like he'd lost his mind for a few seconds before he made a move to get up but Naruto tightened his grip on Sai's hand. "I'm sorry, okay?" Naruto said, still grinning "I just had to get back at you for laughing at me when I fell"

Sai didn't look convinced, his eyebrows still drawn together as if he didn't quite believe that explanation. "You won't try to knock me down again when I stand up, will you?"

Naruto just smiled and leaned in to press their lips together, feeling a giddy little thrill at the way Sai almost melted against him.

oOo

Sakura had arranged her firewood in the pit that Yamato had dug out and now she was trying to get yet another match to light without much success. She sat back and blew the hair out of her face and debated lobbing the box of matches into the forest in frustration.

"Need a hand with that?" Kakashi's voice came from directly behind her and she just barely contained the squeak of surprise that jumped in the back of her throat.

She stood up and brushed at the front of her clothes "I can't get them to spark. I think that they may have gotten wet earlier when we got caught in the rain."

Kakashi shrugged and dumped the dead boar that he had had slung over his shoulder onto the ground beside the fire pit unceremoniously before going through the seals for a fire element jutsu and setting the firewood alight.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei" she said and he smiled back at her. She watched with morbid fascination as he sunk a blade into the belly of the dead hog, gutting it in a clean and efficient motion. It was disgusting but she was almost hungry enough not to care.

She caught some movement from the corner of her eye and turned just in time to see Naruto and Sai enter the clearing. She took in their dishevelled appearance with annoyance; their clothes were rumpled and covered in mud and if the fact that Sai's lip was bleeding again was any indicator she had a pretty good idea how they had gotten that way.

Sakura marched over to them and felt her ire increase when she saw that most of the firewood they had brought with them was damp. "We can't use these" she said, jabbing her finger toward the bundle of branches in Naruto's arms "look how wet they are!"

He at least had the decency to look a little ashamed "It wasn't my fault, I swear! They _were_ dry, but then I fell and they got all wet!"

"And what about yours?" she asked sarcastically, looking to Sai "are you going to tell me that the same thing happened to you?"

Sai looked to Naruto (who was nodding desperately) for his cue "Yes… I also fell"

She only just resisted the urge to slap her palm to her forehead in exasperation, they really weren't fooling anyone.

"Get back out there, Naruto" she said, pushing him back towards the tree line "And find us some firewood that we can actually _use_" He managed a few spluttered protests before he gave up and stomped off into the forest with his hands shoved deep in his pockets.

"Maybe I should go with him…" Sai said as he watched Naruto go.

"Oh, no you don't" Sakura said, catching him by the upper arm and pulling him towards the centre of their camp "you're coming over into the light so I can get a good look at that lip"

Once they were out of the gloom she grasped his chin in her hand and turned his head "Sai, this looks worse than it did yesterday"

"Naruto likes to bite" he offered blandly.

Kakashi's hand hesitated for less than a second before he snorted in amusement and continued preparing the pig to be cooked; on the other side of the fire Yamato had started coughing uncontrollably.

"Yes, I can see that" she said, proud of how calm and level her voice sounded despite the way that her cheeks were burning "But it's never going to heal at this rate."

She brought both of her hands up to his face and let her chakra flow out to cover the wound. The flesh knit back together neatly and she was glad to see that it didn't look like he was going to end up with a scar.

"There, all done"

oOo

After dinner Kakashi told the others that they were going to be leaving before sunrise so it would be best if they headed to bed now. He would take the first watch, then Yamato would relieve him in an hour, Sakura would have next watch, followed by Sai, and then Naruto. Kakashi and Yamato would take a second shift each after that meaning that they would all get at least five hours sleep.

He watched the four of them set up their sleeping bags in their little wooden shelters and knew that they wouldn't be awake for long.

He sat, cross legged in front of his own little hut for the first half hour; hearing nothing but the sound of Naruto's snoring and the odd nocturnal animal moving in the undergrowth. His mind wandered, as it often did in these situations, to the other member of Team Kakashi. He wondered where Sasuke was right now, they hadn't heard anything about him in months and Kakashi knew that it wasn't going to be long until Naruto started getting antsy.

Thinking of Sasuke led him to think about all those years ago when Team Kakashi had first been formed. He could still remember it clear as day.

oOo

_Kakashi appeared a few feet behind The Third Hokage, removing his ANBU mask and dropping to one knee as a show of respect. The Third hadn't moved straight away, continuing to look out the window and across the village silently for a few moments before turning around to face him._

"_Kakashi-kun" he started and Kakashi felt his eyebrow twitch. How many years had it been since someone had called him that? "I need you to do something for me."_

"_Hokage-sama?"_

"_They have just finished grading the academy students who are going to be graduating this year; I've been working with the teachers to assign the children to their teams and to choose the best jounin available to become their new mentors." The Third paused and stroked at his beard thoughtfully "Uchiha Sasuke is among the new genin and he'll be coming into his sharingan soon…"_

"_You want me to take his team." Kakashi responded, keeping his tone level to mask his exasperation. Teaching a team of genin was not mandatory for a jounin, but you wouldn't know that from the way that The Third kept pushing kids onto him._

_On paper all of the teams that he'd been assigned previously had failed because they showed a lack of personal initiative and an inability to work as a team; it wasn't a lie but it wasn't the whole truth either. Kakashi was more than content with his position within the ANBU, having been made leader of a squad of shinobi that he trusted and respected; not to mention that he hated most kids and liked the idea of being responsible for three of them even less. He had been hoping that the Hokage would finally give up and just leave him be after he had failed the last batch._

_But this situation was different and it made sense at first glance, Kakashi conceded. The kid would need guidance on how to manage his chakra while using the sharingan; something that another Uchiha would be best suited for… although considering the only other Uchiha left had been the one to slaughter their clan and abandon the village, Kakashi supposed he was the next best thing. _

"_And what if he fails the bell test and has to go back to the academy?" Kakashi asked, testing the waters._

"_Then you'll take him on _again_ when he graduates _again_, Kakashi-kun." The Hokage's tone was mild and dismissive; Kakashi knew that it wasn't up for discussion._

_oOo_

_Telling his ANBU squad that he had been chosen to lead a team of genin had been easy enough, they had obviously assumed that he'd fail the kids and be back to them before the month was out; it wasn't like it hadn't happened before._

_Kakashi didn't bother to correct them, knowing it would be easier that way. Instead he filled out the appropriate paperwork to recommend Tenzou as his successor. He knew that it might ruffle a few feathers since Tenzou was the youngest and newest member of their squad but he also had a perfect performance record and was the most suited to taking the position of leader in his absence. _

_They were a good team, if not the best, and he knew they would get over it._

_oOo_

_He hadn't found out who else was on his team until the Hokage summoned him to his home two days later. The Third had handed him the academy files for his three future students before heading off to make tea and Kakashi had started to leaf through them absentmindedly._

_Sasuke's had been on the top, the picture clipped to the inside of the cover had been taken on his first day in the academy and showed a small boy with a shy smile and colouring typical of the Uchiha clan. What he saw in the rest of the file was that Sasuke was top in his class in ninjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu but had developed a bit of an attitude problem after his first few months in the academy. It was unsurprising considering what the kid had been through, Kakashi thought to himself, his eye had been drawn back to the smiling face in the picture and he spared a moment to wonder if there was anything left of the child who had posed for that photograph before closing the file and moving onto the next._

_It had been Sakura's and Kakashi remembered that he had barely even registered the name when it didn't ring any bells. Her picture had shown a little girl whose smile looked strained; she was red around the eyes and holding the hand of someone off camera, obviously having had a case of the first day jitters. Her performance breakdown showed high grades in theory, problem solving and genjutsu but relatively low ones in ninjutsu and taijutsu. If he was honest with himself, he had thought that she was nothing special and it made him cringe looking back on it now._

_As he was moving onto the last file The Hokage came back into the room, shuffling in his long robes before setting the tray of tea down and retaking his seat across from Kakashi. _

_Kakashi lifted a hand to pick up his cup but he froze mid-reach when he saw the name on the cover of the last folder. He flipped the file open, thinking that he must have been mistaken (in retrospect he realised how stupid he was being, how many kids were running around with names that ridiculous?) but he was greeted with a familiar shock of bright blonde hair and blue eyes; the similarities to his sensei ended there however, the mulish look of defiance that the child was wearing was entirely his mother._

_It had been more than ten years since Kakashi had seen the boy up close, having made a few awkward visits to the safe house where the baby was kept out of some misguided sense of duty to his dead teacher. He had only just turned fourteen and didn't really know what to do with a baby or how to behave around the caregivers that looked upon their charge with such cold eyes and his visits had slowly decreased in frequency until they eventually stopped altogether. His increased workload as a jounin and then as a member of ANBU had made it easy to forget. Maybe if he had been older… or maybe if Rin had still been alive it would have been different._

"_I thought it would be appropriate" The Hokage spoke up and Kakashi had silently agreed with him._

_oOo_

_To say that they had gotten off to a rough start would be an understatement. First they had had the nerve to prank him with a falling eraser and after their less than thrilling introductions it had begun to look like the three of them were much too self-involved to understand the basic concept of the bell test, never mind actually pass it._

_Fortunately (for all of them) they had proven him wrong and shown that they could value the welfare of a teammate over their own success, even if it was only something minor like sharing their lunch despite orders to the contrary. Kakashi had been more than a little surprised; he had fully expected to be booting the three of them back to the academy at the end of the exercise._

_After that first shaky day the three of them slowly began to come into themselves, learning how to cover for each other's weaknesses instead of playing off them._

_Kakashi had expected to see Obito in Sasuke but other than the superficial family resemblance they had very little in common; Sasuke was bitter and damaged in ways that reminded Kakashi only of himself. He saw much more of Obito(and Rin) in his other students, in the way that they could still be carefree and smile regardless of how bleak things became or the way that they pestered Sasuke endlessly; slowly pulling him out of the darkness and back into the light._

_Kakashi watched them grow from selfish children into fine young shinobi; he had been reluctant to admit it (even to himself) but they had managed to worm their way under his shell. He had briefly wondered if that was why The Third had always been so insistent that he take on a team of genin for all these years._

_Of course then things had taken a turn for the worse, they lost Sasuke to Orochimaru and Kakashi would always blame himself for it. He had known that Sasuke was wavering, saw just how strained his relationships with Naruto and Sakura were becoming under the crushing weight of his duty as an avenger; but all he'd done was lecture the boy about his own mistakes. And then he'd left Sasuke alone… something his own sensei never would have done._

_How many times had he replayed that night in his mind? Thinking about what he should have done instead?_

oOo

Kakashi was pulled from his reverie when Yamato crawled out of his shelter and smiled at him across the fire. "It's my watch now, senpai…" He must have seemed off because Yamato's smile dropped "Are you okay?"

Kakashi sighed and tried to smile reassuringly "I'm fine, Tenzou."

The corner of Yamato's mouth twitched at the name but he didn't try to correct him. "Thinking about the past?"

"Mmm" Kakashi responded half-heartedly as he climbed into his sleeping bag, he suddenly felt very tired.

"Goodnight, senpai" Yamato said softly.

"'Night…" Kakashi closed his eyes and was asleep within minutes. His last thought before he drifted off was of that night, but instead of leaving Sasuke alone to make the decision himself he reached out, put a hand on the boy's shoulder and invited him back to his home.

oOo

A/N

There's the sixth chapter anyways. The more that I get into the story the more I'm finding it hard to avoid doing things that could eventually contradict the canon... so this is going to be Kakashi's little Team 7 back-story in this universe even if it gets thrown out by Kishimoto at some point in the future. The same goes for Rin's death (who I've decided died during the Kyuubi attack on Konoha) which Kishimoto has left dangling in limbo for a ridiculous amount of time.

I'm trying to make the story a little more plot heavy and it's making me nervous, any comments or (constructive) criticism are appreciated.

Thank you to my lovely reviewers (YamiPimpster, sparkly red ribbon and HeWhoCrys). I love you guys!


	7. Chapter 7

Naruto scooted a little closer to the fire and yawned, blinking sleepily at the flames; he hated keeping watch. It was mind numbingly boring just sitting here while everyone else was asleep, he couldn't even try and find something to do to keep himself busy because then he'd run the risk of waking the others up or worse, not noticing an attack before it was too late.

Despite his best efforts to stay awake he eventually slumped forward, eyes drifting closed and consciousness slipping away. He woke with a jolt when a hand clapped down heavily on his shoulder and his own hand went to his shuriken holster automatically.

"Naruto." Kakashi spoke firmly and caught Naruto's arm in a painful grip, fingers digging into the tendons of his wrist so that his hand spasmed and the shuriken he'd been holding fell uselessly to the ground.

"Ow, fuck!" Naruto hissed, before remembering that he was supposed to be whispering "What the hell was that for?"

"You're supposed to be keeping watch… not taking a nap" Kakashi whispered back, he sounded a bit disappointed but not angry. It wasn't like this was the first time they had had this conversation after all "I shouldn't have been able to sneak up on you like that."

"I guess…" Naruto said, pulling his arm free from Kakashi's grasp and rubbing his wrist sullenly. He debated mentioning that he _had_ been awake for the whole hour and it was only right at the end that he'd started having trouble (and even then he'd only closed his eyes for a second) but knew that there wasn't really any point in arguing "… sorry."

"Just don't let it happen again." Kakashi said good naturedly, taking a seat beside the fire "Now, go get some sleep, we're leaving in two hours"

Naruto stood up and stretched, wiggling his toes to try and work out some of the pins and needles in his legs. Once he got some of the feeling back he started walking around the fire and towards his hut but came to a stop just as he reached Sai's; he peered inside and had to fight the urge to snicker at what he saw. Sai was asleep on his back, laying ramrod straight with his arms at his sides; looking more like some kind of robot in standby mode than a person actually sleeping. Naruto had always wondered about the strange way that Sai slept and he was even more curious now that he knew from experience that his teammate didn't sleep that way when he was at home in his own bed.

He wondered if he could get away with climbing in beside Sai instead of going back to his own sleeping bag and looked over his shoulder to where his sensei was sitting on the other side of the fire. Naruto opened his mouth to speak but Kakashi beat him to it.

"Go on" he said with a sigh and a wave of his hand "But no funny business… I've seen more than enough of that to last me for a life time"

Naruto grinned despite his embarrassment "Thanks, Kakashi-sensei."

He got down on his hands and knees and crawled into the small wooden shelter. He was just reaching for the edge of the sleeping bag when Sai's eyes snapped open and his hand shot out to grab Naruto's forearm; body tense and ready to deal with the perceived threat. It wasn't anything that Naruto hadn't been expecting; he had had to wake Sai up for enough watches over the years to know that he had a tendency to be a bit jumpy.

Naruto waited until he saw the spark of recognition in Sai's eyes and the way he relaxed visibly (although not entirely) when he realised that the person who had woken him wasn't also trying to kill him.

"Naruto?" he asked softly "Did something happen?"

"Nope" Naruto answered simply, toeing off his sandals and unzipping the side of the sleeping bag.

"I don't understand" Sai said, his eyebrows were drawn together in confusion but he made no protest when Naruto wriggled in beside him.

"Just go back to sleep, Sai" Naruto said with a yawn, pulling Sai closer and resting his head in the crook of his shoulder.

Sai didn't try to pursue the matter further and Naruto felt the last of the tension slip out of his teammate; they were both soundly asleep within minutes.

oOo

An hour after his watch had started Kakashi saw Yamato stir; he appreciated the way that the other man always woke for his shift without needing to be called first, a skill that the younger members of Team Kakashi had yet to acquire… although Naruto would have to master the simple task of staying awake for the entirety of his watch first.

Yamato crawled out from his shelter and answered Kakashi's salute with a small wave of his own before turning to fold his sleeping bag up and pack it away. Kakashi couldn't quite keep the smile off his face when he saw Yamato do a double take as he passed Sai's hut and realised that it was a little more crowded than it had been when he'd last seen it.

"Is there a problem, Yamato?" he asked mischievously.

"No, Senpai" Yamato replied, but the way that his mouth was drawn in a disapproving line and the colour high on his cheekbones (obvious even in the dim light provided by the fire) said otherwise.

Kakashi toyed with the idea of staying up for the last hour and teasing his co-captain a little more (who would have thought that Tenzou could be such a prude?) but ultimately decided against it. It would be irresponsible of him to miss out on even an hour's sleep when they would be travelling for most of the following day.

He stood up and winced at the way his knees popped as he did so; ah, the wonders of age. "See you in an hour then."

oOo

Sakura woke up to the sound of Naruto complaining and a rock sticking painfully into the small of her back. Not exactly a recipe for a good start to the day, she thought grumpily as she climbed out of her sleeping bag.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan~" Naruto said, grinning so brightly at her that she almost had to squint against the glare.

"What are you moaning about this early in the morning, Naruto?" she asked.

The grin was gone just as quickly as it had surfaced and was replaced with a pained grimace "I forgot to bring any instant ramen with me and now I have no breakfast."

"I offered to share mine with you." Sai said, looking a little hurt.

Naruto stuck his tongue out in an exaggerated show of disgust "I can't eat those ration bars, they taste like cardboard!"

"Have you eaten cardboard before?" Sai asked curiously.

"What?" Naruto was looking at Sai like he'd just grown a second head. "Of course not!"

"But you just said-"

"It's just an expression, Sai" Sakura said with a tired sigh, it was way too early in the morning for this. "_Anyway_, I can't help you, Naruto" she reached into her bag and pulled out her own meagre breakfast to illustrate her point "I have the same thing as Sai."

"We all do" Yamato added, sounding unimpressed "If you hadn't eaten enough to feed four people last night maybe we'd have some meat left over for breakfast."

"I was hungry!" Naruto cried indignantly and crossed his arms in a defiant posture "If I ate as little as you guys I'd probably starve to death!"

"You might want to reconsider Sai's generosity, Naruto" Kakashi said "because you aren't going anywhere on an empty stomach." Naruto opened his mouth to argue but Kakashi cut across him "It's not up for discussion."

Sakura watched as Naruto snatched a handful of bars from Sai and almost ripped the packaging off one, grumbling under his breath the whole time. He chewed slowly and deliberately, his face scrunched up in an expression of extreme distaste. He looked so much like a petulant toddler that Sakura couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled up in the back of her throat and she tried to disguise it with a cough when Naruto shot her a wounded look.

"Now, while we're waiting for Naruto to finish choking down his breakfast…" Kakashi said, obviously not impressed with Naruto's little tantrum "Yamato, if you would"

Yamato stepped forward "I'm going to need the three of you to swallow these." He opened his hand and revealed the small seeds there.

Sakura took hers without argument, swallowing it with a mouthful of water and grimacing at the way it still managed to stick in her throat on the way down.

"How come Kakashi-sensei doesn't have to eat one, huh?" Naruto asked through a mouthful of food; Sakura saw that he was wearing the sly expression that he usually adopted whenever he thought he was going to be presented with an opportunity to see under their sensei's mask.

"…I swallowed mine earlier while you were still asleep."

"No fair!" Naruto squawked.

Sakura rolled her eyes and took a bite out one of her own ration bars, it was true that they didn't exactly taste great (and they were certainly not something that you'd ever go out of your way to eat) but they were nowhere near as bad as Naruto made them out to be. And despite his complaints, Sakura noticed that he had eaten a large portion of Sai's rations; she made a mental note to check with Sai later and see if he needed some of hers.

Once everyone had eaten their fill and packed away their belongings, Yamato used an earth element jutsu to cover the remnants of their campfire and their shelters; destroying any evidence that they had spent the night in the clearing before they set off into the trees silently.

oOo

They had been travelling for almost four hours when Kakashi felt the prickle of unfamiliar chakra on his skin; he landed on a thick branch, coming to a stop and raising a hand to bring his team to a halt. They fell in behind him without question.

The thick foliage a few feet in front of them rustled before three ANBU emerged, Kakashi took note of their masks (a dog, a boar and a ram) but didn't recognise any of them. The one with the boar mask was closest to him and was also wearing a white captain's cloak.

"Kakashi-san" Boar spoke and the voice was deep and male; Kakashi found that it was just as unfamiliar as the mask "What are you doing here?"

"There's no point in asking questions you already know the answer to" Kakashi kept his tone light and friendly; he glanced quickly at the rest of his squad and saw no hesitation in their eyes. Good.

"This is… unfortunate." Boar said, but didn't really sound very convincing.

A few tense seconds ticked by before Kakashi caught Ram moving from the corner of his eye, hand moving discretely beneath their cloak in what was most likely hand seals. Kakashi threw a handful of shuriken reflexively; they thunked harmlessly into the wood of the branch where Ram had been standing but they had still served a purpose in interrupting whatever jutsu the ANBU in the ram mask had been preparing.

With the first move made chaos erupted around him, kunai and shuriken slicing through the air from both sides; he dodged a rain of senbon effortlessly and lifted his hands just in time to block the downward swipe of Boar's katana with the metal guards on the back of his gloves.

"Take them alive if you can!" he called out just as he heard the sound of splintering wood and a tree crashing to the ground behind him; he wasn't sure whether it was from Naruto's rasengan, Sakura's super strength or something one of the rogue ANBU had done. He didn't have too much time to dwell on it as Boar drew back his sword to slash at him again, Kakashi quickly gathered chakra in the soles of his feet and pushed off from the branch; lifting several feet in the air. His hands shot through the familiar hand seals and he unleashed a massive fireball on the ANBU below him, giving him enough distance and time to reach up and straighten his forehead protector; relishing the way the world took on a new clarity with his sharingan exposed.

He could see that Yamato and Sai had managed to restrain Dog, wood and ink snakes binding the ANBU so completely that they were totally immobilised. He saw Naruto charging towards Ram; rasengan spinning in his hand. He scanned the area quickly for Sakura but didn't immediately see her. It was when Boar came flying at him from the smoke below, meaning to skewer him with his sword, that Kakashi noticed Sakura running up the tree directly behind the rogue ANBU; her hand in her weapons pouch.

Her intent was clear enough, so when Boar lunged at him again Kakashi didn't try to dodge the blow, he caught Boar's wrist in a tight grip and stopped the blade with the back of his other hand. He barely even winced as the sword glanced off the guard on his glove and sliced into the back of his hand instead; he just tightened his grip on his opponent's forearm and held his breath. This close he could make out a pair of brown eyes through the eyeholes of the mask and he saw panic and comprehension dawn there. _Too late_, Kakashi thought as they were engulfed in white smoke.

He held his position for a few seconds after he felt Boar go limp, needing to make sure that the loss of consciousness wasn't feigned despite the way his lungs were burning and begging for air. When he was satisfied that his opponent really was out of commission he jumped back out of the smoke (taking Boar with him) and gulped down a lung full of clean air gratefully.

Sakura landed beside him, her hand going straight to the rogue ANBU's neck to check his pulse "he should be out cold for more than 72 hours" she said "…unless someone finds him and gives him the antidote."

"Good work, Sakura." He said, and he meant it. There was a lot to be said about incapacitating their enemies without risking injury to themselves, especially when they hadn't even reached their primary target yet.

He looked down to the ground where Yamato was standing by Dog, making sure that the restraints stayed in place; Naruto was a few feet away, several of his kage bunshins beating Ram to a bloody pulp while Sai looked on.

"Sai" Kakashi called down to them "Bind that ANBU before Naruto gets too carried away…"

Sai did as he was told, whipping out his scroll and animating the snakes that were already drawn carefully onto the paper.

Yamato stood up straight and Kakashi's sharingan picked up the almost imperceptible way he swayed a little on his feet for a second "Sakura… I think I need you to take a look at me… I got nicked by one of those senbon…"

Sakura jumped down to him and Kakashi followed, watching as she put her hand to Yamato's chest; her brows drawn together in concentration.

"It's a pretty potent poison" she said eventually "but it's relatively slow acting and I have a serum that should counteract it."

"As expected of the Fifth Hokage's apprentice" Kakashi said with a smile, he went to reach out and ruffle her hair but that was when he remembered the nasty gash across the back of his hand. Sakura had obviously seen it too because when she spoke again she was in full Mother Hen mode.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she tutted, reaching out to grab his wrist and jerk his hand roughly into the light so she could see it better; when she next spoke it was with a tone that one might use to address a particularly slow child "Try to stop the bleeding while I get the serum for Yamato… you can do that much, can't you?"

"Yes…" he said, not wanting to provoke her. He shared a long suffering look with Yamato over her head; her bedside manner really left a lot to be desired.

Sakura presented Yamato with a vial of purple liquid that Kakashi could smell even at a distance... it would be an understatement to say that the odour was anything less than stomach turning. Sakura glowered up at Yamato, hands planted on her hips; as if the threat of death by poison wasn't motivation enough. He eyed the concoction warily before downing it in one go; grimacing in disgust as he swallowed.

The other members of their team made their way over to them and Kakashi turned to see Naruto dragging Ram unceremoniously behind him.

"This guy was pretty tough!" Naruto said with a grin "But he was no match for me!"

Kakashi ignored Naruto's bragging and dropped into a crouched position beside the bound ANBU, he reached out and removed the Ram mask (which had several large cracks in it by now) carefully, revealing an unconscious face that rang a few dim bells in the back of his mind.

"It looks like 'this guy' is actually a woman, Naruto" Kakashi said simply; sure that he had seen her before in the bars that were usually frequented by jounin and ANBU, although he didn't think that they had ever spoken. "…We should unmask the other two"

Seeing Boar's real face still did nothing for Kakashi's memory and he had to assume that he didn't know the man at all. He looked up at his team "Do any of you know him?" but they all just shook their heads. That was odd.

"Ah" Sai said with mild surprise "I recognise this one"

Kakashi turned to see Sai kneeling down beside Dog; the porcelain mask lay discarded on the ground, exposing the face of a girl that couldn't be much older than twenty. She was conscious and her expression was completely blank. "I won't talk" she said without any inflection, it was a statement rather than a challenge.

Kakashi ignored her and looked to Sai "What do you know about her?"

"We were in the same age group in the Foundation, her most commonly used codename was Saki…" he paused and Kakashi thought he might have seen something flicker in Sai's eyes before he continued "If I remember correctly she was a strong tracker but especially weak in genjutsu training"

"That works out well enough" Kakashi said, he didn't quite have the same repertoire of genjutsu that a native sharingan user would but he could still do enough to get information out of someone, especially if they had difficulties with genjutsu to begin with.

He didn't even need to get up and cross the distance between them; just catching her eye was enough.

oOo

Sakura watched the girl go rigid and her eyes lose focus, it wasn't long before Kakashi closed his sharingan eye.

"There are only ten of them in the base at the moment… and another two scout teams… but we shouldn't bump into them on the route we're taking" he said.

"Is that all you could get from her?" she asked, it came out a little snarkier than she had intended but Kakashi didn't seem to notice.

"She doesn't have high enough clearance to have access to any more useful information"

"So… now what?" Naruto asked.

"We make sure that the three of them are sedated and bound securely." Kakashi said "We'll stash them up in a tree to keep them safe from any hungry animals and pick them up on the way back… other than that, we continue on as we originally planned."

Sakura stepped forward just as Kakashi stooped to pick up the ANBU that had been wearing the boar mask "Leave that to the others, Kakashi-sensei. I need to see to that hand of yours."

He sat down on the ground without arguing and held out his injured hand. Blood was dripping thickly from the wound and onto the ground in big fat droplets; she had to bite her tongue to keep herself from reprimanding him for not trying to stop the bleeding like he had said he would, still feeling bad for snapping at him before.

She pulled his glove off carefully, it was sticky and wet with his blood and she had to ease it off slowly to avoid tugging at his wound any more than was necessary. She clasped his hand in her own and concentrated her chakra on the cut; it went deeper than she had initially thought, some of the major blood vessels were damaged and she had to mend a few fractured bones before she was done. There was a thin white line left where the wound had been but it hardly stood out amongst the many (much worse) scars that already stood out on the back of his hand.

"There" she said, releasing his hand and wiping the sweat from her brow "How's that?"

He flexed his hand experimentally before smiling at her "Thank you, Sakura."

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called from above them "We need you to come up and put the other two to sleep!"

"I'm coming!"

oOo

They travelled for another eight hours and while there was still a good four hours of daylight left, Kakashi knew that if they continued on at this pace that they would soon be too close to the enemy base to make camp safely. He signalled for them to stop at the edge of a small river and delegated his team with the same jobs that he had given them the previous evening.

After Naruto, Sakura and Sai reported back that the perimeter was secure he watched them shoot off in different directions to gather fuel for the fire. He pretended not to notice the way that Naruto doubled back so that he could follow Sai.

Boys would be boys after all.

oOo

Sakura set her branches down beside the fire-pit and busied herself with setting up the fire while she waited for Sai and Naruto to come back to camp with their share of the firewood. She deliberately took her time but even then there was still no sign of her teammates by the time she was finished.

She stood up and huffed bad temperedly under her breath "What is taking them so long?"

"I'm sure they'll be back soon, Sakura" Kakashi said, he didn't look up from the kunai he was sharpening but Sakura could hear the smile in his voice. That just annoyed her even more.

"Well, I'm going after them." She said, turning away from them.

"Sakura…" Yamato called after her wearily.

She ignored him and set off into the forest, fully intent on finding her two teammates and dragging them back to camp by the ear when she did. What exactly did they think they were playing at anyway? She wanted to be supportive of their relationship but they were on a mission and a very important one at that; it was hardly appropriate for them to be taking every opportunity that presented itself to sneak off and make out in the woods.

Sakura moved quietly through the undergrowth with practiced ease, still being cautious even though she wanted nothing more than to stomp flat every leaf and twig under her feet; she couldn't let her personal feelings potentially compromise the mission… if only her teammates could get that basic concept through their thick skulls.

She travelled in an almost straight line for several minutes before she realised that she wasn't entirely sure where Sai and Naruto might be and that she couldn't even try to feel them out with her chakra without risking giving away her own position to any nearby enemies. She came to a stop in front of an immensely large tree, one that was nearly three times the width of any of the others in the near vicinity, and debated whether she should turn back around and ask Yamato to point her in the right direction.

Her mind was made up for her when she heard movement from not that far ahead. She flattened herself against the big tree without thinking and held her breath, waiting for the sound to repeat itself and give her some kind of indication as to whether it was from a friend or foe. There was nothing but silence for a few seconds, each one punctuated by the sound of her heart beating in her ears, before it was broken by a soft breathy moan. She felt the tension slip out of her body and she sagged against the tree in exasperation, that was unmistakeably Sai and he was also quite clearly _not_ moaning in pain. She felt some of her earlier annoyance return and tried to ignore the way her cheeks were burning before stepping around the edge of the tree.

Sakura had intended to announce her presence as soon as she saw them but the scene that was playing out less than twenty feet away from her stopped her dead in her tracks. She had been fully expecting (and maybe even hoping) to catch them kissing, thinking that it would embarrass Naruto enough that he'd think twice about running off like this again in the future. What she hadn't been expecting was to see Sai with his back pressed up against a tree and Naruto on his knees in front of him.

Sai's eyes were closed tightly (for which Sakura was immensely grateful) and he was biting down on his lower lip, obviously trying to avoid moaning aloud again. Some part of her mind screamed at her to get back into cover before one of them noticed her but Sakura felt as if she were just as rooted to the spot as the trees that surrounded them; riveted by the sight of Sai so uncharacteristically flustered and the way that Naruto's head bobbed up and down enthusiastically in a rhythmic motion.

Naruto picked up the pace and Sai reached down; sliding his fingers through blonde hair and groaning. Arousal twisted low in the pit of Sakura's stomach and she had to bite back the whimper that threatened to escape at the sensation. Sai started thrusting shallowly in time with Naruto's movements, his breathing was coming in short ragged pants and Sakura could see quite clearly (even from a distance) how much he was shaking.

Sakura watched raptly as Sai's expression contorted in pained pleasure and he came with a ragged cry that sounded incredibly loud in the still forest. She saw his eyelids flutter and that was enough for spur her into action and put the big tree between herself and her teammates again. She pressed herself against the gnarled bark of the tree, holding her breath and waiting to see if they had noticed her.

Seconds of silence dragged by excruciatingly slowly (she felt like her heart was trying its hardest to thump through the front of her ribcage) before finally she heard Naruto speak up; his voice was barely a whisper but she caught enough of what he had said to know that he was asking Sai to return the favour. She almost sighed out loud in relief; if they still hadn't realised that she was there then maybe she could manage to sneak back to camp and pretend that this hadn't happened at all.

"Oh~" Naruto moaned loudly and Sakura had to remind herself why it would be a bad idea to try and sneak another peek around the edge of the tree.

Now that they were distracted again she risked moving from her hiding place and began to creep slowly back in the direction she had come from earlier.

oOo

Yamato watched Sakura go with a frown, a little offended (but not at all surprised) that she had ignored him completely.

"Let her go, Yamato" Kakashi said mildly, holding his kunai up to the light and running his finger along the edge to gauge its sharpness.

Yamato sighed and sat down on the ground next to him; Kakashi had always been willing to look the other way when it came to his student's 'high jinks' (he wasn't quite sure if it was out of indulgence or a lack of interest on Kakashi's part) but Yamato felt that things were beginning to get a little ridiculous "Are you going to talk to Naruto and Sai about their behaviour?"

"Hm?" Kakashi turned and looked at him, seeming genuinely surprised by the question "Isn't that what the team evaluation is for?"

"Well… yes" Yamato conceded "But we're on a mission now and I think that, as team captain, you should talk to them about how they should be keeping those kinds of… _activities_ for when they're in the village."

Kakashi smiled at him and reached out to place a hand on his shoulder "If it's that much of an issue then I think that I can trust my _co_-captain to take care of it." Yamato opened his mouth to protest but Kakashi continued regardless, mirth evident in his voice "Unless their relationship makes you _uncomfortable_?"

"N-no! Of course not!" Yamato stammered quickly, the last thing he needed was for Kakashi of all people to misunderstand.

"Then you'll talk to them about it?"

"Uh…" Yamato gaped at him, how had the situation been turned around so completely?

"That is, of course, only if you think it can't wait until the evaluation."

Yamato sighed in defeat "I guess it can wait a day or two…"

"I'm glad we agree." Kakashi said amicably before turning his attention back to his weapons.

Yamato frowned and looked out over the little stream; he had already considered speaking to Naruto and Sai himself about the less than appropriate way they were conducting themselves but he didn't really know where to begin... and it wasn't like Naruto would listen to him anyway. Kakashi on the other hand had just demonstrated how good he was at twisting a conversation in such a way that he got what he wanted and almost convince the other person that that was what they had wanted in the first place as well. But thinking about it now, he wasn't sure why he had thought that Kakashi would actually step in and do something about the situation; if the way that he had found Naruto and Sai this morning was any indicator he was obviously more than content to let his students do whatever they wanted.

He shot a sidelong glance at Kakashi, who still seemed to be completely focused on what he was doing, from the corner of his eye. He had nothing but the utmost respect for his senpai (and some other emotions that he didn't like to think about too deeply) but he did wish that Kakashi would reign in the younger members of their squad a little more often.

Feeling a little resigned Yamato unclasped his own weapon pouch and set the contents out on the ground in front of him, doing a quick inventory as he did it; his frown deepened when he realised that he was missing his whet stones. He was almost one hundred percent positive that he'd packed them when he was getting ready to leave for the mission so he had to wonder if he had somehow lost them while they were travelling…

Kakashi held a hand out to him; smooth stone nestled in his gloved palm and smile obvious even behind his mask.

"Thank you, Senpai" Yamato said gratefully as he accepted the whet stone; he immediately felt his mood improve at the simple gesture.

They sat in comfortable silence like that for a while; the only sound being the grinding of their blades against stone and the slow trickle of water.

They both looked up as Sakura reappeared at the edge of camp, Yamato couldn't help but notice that she was without her teammates and looked more than a little flustered. They watched as she made a beeline for her shelter and belongings without even acknowledging them before sitting down and started rifling through her bag in an aimless way that was obviously intended to discourage conversation.

Her transparent tactics did not have the desired effect on Kakashi "I assume they were busy, then?"

She didn't lift her eyes from her bag as she mumbled "I couldn't find them, so I came back here to wait."

"…Is that so?" Kakashi asked, not sounding convinced in the least.

Sakura didn't answer and just made an annoyed noise in the back of her throat, Yamato might have felt sorry for her if she hadn't completely ignored the way that he had tried to warn her about going after them earlier.

oOo

As the five of them sat around the campfire, tucking into the fish that they had caught fresh from the stream Kakashi decided that it was time to bring up something important that they had yet to get out of the way. "Sai"

Sai looked up from his food, eyebrows raised in question.

"I'm going to need you to tell us everything you know about Root"

oOo

A/N

There's the seventh chapter anyway. Thanks to Sahisdabest (Sasuke will eventually turn up, either in name or in person. Don't worry!), naruhina4ever777 (I'm glad that you like the story and my writing style and I hope that you enjoy this chapter just as much), and May Wong (Be patient! :3 ) for their reviews.


	8. Chapter 8

Sakura sat with her knees pulled up to her chest and watched as her fish turned brown in the flames of the fire. She had found it a little hard to meet her teammate's eyes when they had returned to camp from their little 'excursion'. Fortunately, her embarrassed jitters had begun to subside as they slipped into the familiar fireside routines... and if she found it difficult to look at Sai without thinking of what he looked like in the throes of orgasm then that was something that would surely pass as well. She hoped.

"Sai" Kakashi said, pulling Sakura from her thoughts "I'm going to need you to tell us everything you know about Root"

If Sai was surprised by the question he didn't show it "What do you want to know?"

"Anything you can think of" Kakashi answered amicably "We have plenty of time and even the smallest detail might be important."

Sai was looking a little uncomfortable now and Sakura supposed that had more to do with the vague nature of Kakashi's question than the actual subject matter; Sai had always had trouble with indirect requests.

"...When Danzou-sama was alive Root was an organisation concerned with protecting Konoha by any means necessary." Sai began, still looking unsure "I would assume that these remnants have the same motivations... and are therefore, most likely to be from the second tier of the Foundation."

"Second tier?" Yamato asked.

"Root was divided into two tiers, a first and a second." Sai explained "The first tier was made up of operatives who had been raised within Root since childhood, under Danzou-sama's direct supervision. The second tier was made of shinobi who joined the organisation of their own free will because they shared Danzou-sama's ideals... or disagreed with the Third's. The two tiers very rarely interacted."

"Why separate the two groups?" Sakura asked, not really seeing the point in dividing your forces over such a trivial matter.

"Danzou-sama was always very adamant that emotions were something that a shinobi should discard, that they were something that could only negatively affect your ability to complete your missions..." Sakura caught the way that Sai's eyes flicked to Naruto as he spoke "He was worried that the second tier members who had been raised outside of the Foundation would contaminate those from the first tier with their emotional instability."

"Then why bother having a second tier in the first place?" Naruto asked, but Sakura thought that she might have already figured out answer.

Kakashi spoke up before Sai had the chance to respond and confirmed Sakura's suspicions "It was the only way for him recruit shinobi with clan techniques."

"Yes." Sai affirmed "Two of the second tier members that were closest to Danzou-sama were from the Yamanaka and Aburame clans."

"I don't get it..." Naruto said "wouldn't he just need an orphan from one of those clans?"

"Naruto..." Sakura said with a sigh. Trust him to ask a question that a first year academy student would know the answer to "Most of the old clans in Konoha have signature jutsu and the only reason that those techniques stay within their specific clan is because the workings behind them are a closely guarded secret. They aren't genetic abilities like a bloodline limit and technically speaking, anyone could learn them."

"Most importantly, it means that it's not just enough to be born a Yamanaka, or a Nara or an Aburame. You have to be raised within the clan to learn their techniques." Yamato finished for her.

They were silent for a few seconds before Sai spoke up again "The second tier shinobi were completely loyal to Danzou-sama, that's why I believe they are most likely the ones who are trying to perpetuate his ideals."

"Wait a second-" it was Naruto again "are you saying that the first tier _weren't_ loyal to Danzou?"

"Loyalty was one of the many emotional states that Danzou-sama discouraged in the first tier operatives." Sai stated simply "it was not considered necessary."

"That's why he put that seal on you" Sakura said with dawning realisation "he couldn't trust the first tier shinobi to remain silent out of loyalty so he had to literally seal their tongues."

Sakura supposed that a shinobi with no emotions, one who had been conditioned to follow orders their whole life and was sealed in such a way that they could never betray your secrets _would_ be an efficient tool. But what if, despite their training, that shinobi were to develop desires that lay outside of the Foundation? Without loyalty to Root or pride in their position there would be very little to hold them to Danzou if that happened... the speed with which Sai had gone back on his orders to assassinate Sasuke suddenly made a lot more sense.

"That girl with the dog mask that we fought earlier" Kakashi started "you said that she was in the same age group as you... are you saying that she's not from the first tier?"

Sakura held her breath as she waited to see if Sai would lie. They had all seen the empty almost dead look in the girl's eyes and she was sure that she wasn't the only one who had recognised it. It didn't happen anywhere near as much as it used to (thankfully) but she had seen exactly the same look on Sai's face many times through the years, as if something had just switched off behind his eyes. There was no way that the girl was anything but first tier.

"No, she is..." Sai said carefully "I was surprised to see her here... but I didn't recognise the other two. I assume that they are from the second tier."

He had told the truth and Sakura knew that she should be relieved but there was that unsettling feeling again, like Sai wasn't telling them the whole truth; she was sure that the others must have felt it too.

"Other than that-" Sai continued "Their command structure is identical to that of the rest of the Konoha ANBU. I'm not sure that I have anything else of use to tell you; most of what I know concerns Danzou-sama in some way... and that is now largely irrelevant."

"That's fine, Sai" Kakashi answered "You've told us more than enough"

Sakura watched Sai closely for a moment, hoping to see something in his face to reassure her but his expression was impassive and his eyes were fixed on the fire. She wondered if he really could betray them ...betray Naruto...

"...You don't trust me" Sai said finally, it was a statement rather than an accusation and his expression didn't change. It hadn't been directed at anyone in particular but his words hit Sakura like a slap in the face and she had to take a second to reassure herself that he had no way of knowing what she had been thinking.

"Sai!" Naruto cried, reaching out to grab his teammate's shoulder and shaking him slightly "of course we trust you! Right, guys?"

Sakura was grateful that Naruto had first looked to Yamato for confirmation, giving her the time to school her expression.

"Sai..." Yamato started wearily "You spent your whole life in Root; of course we're going to worry..."

"Yamato-taichou!" Naruto exclaimed; looking far more wounded than Sai himself "Sai would never betray us!"

"Naruto, calm down" Sakura said, trying to sound soothing "we're just being realistic."

"Sakura-chan-!"

"Yamato, Sakura" Kakashi spoke up and Naruto fell silent "I understand your concerns but Sai has chosen us over Root before... and I trust him to do the same again."

Sakura knew that it was true but she still couldn't shake the uneasiness she felt; that there was something that they were missing here. She caught the look of hurt disbelief that Naruto shot her before he turned his attention back to Sai and she felt terrible.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei" Sai said quietly and Sakura felt one hundred times worse when she heard the genuine gratitude in his voice. Maybe she and Yamato _were_ just being paranoid after all...

A heavy silence fell upon the group, the easy camaraderie that they usually shared lost for the moment. Sakura drew her knees back up to her chest and nibbled at her fish half-heartedly, she barely even tasted it and had to resist the urge to put it aside; it was important to make sure that she got enough food the day before a mission, even if she did feel sick to her stomach all of a sudden.

oOo

Yamato watched Kakashi closely as he spoke and was a little disconcerted when he couldn't tell if his senpai was just trying to boost Sai's confidence or if he actually completely trusted in his loyalty.

Their squad had been working together in its current incarnation for almost five years now and Yamato trusted his teammates with his life, but it still seemed foolhardy to ignore the possibility that Sai might be torn between his old life with Root and his new one as a member of Team Kakashi.

He could see that Sakura shared his concerns and while he could understand how Naruto's view on the matter might be skewed by his relationship with Sai (yet another reason why this team evaluation could not come too soon), he couldn't quite get his head around Kakashi's willingness to believe that Sai would make the right choice.

Uchiha Sasuke's current status as a missing-nin proved just how much experience Kakashi had had with people who would put their own interests above that of their team.

oOo

Naruto bit into the fish he had skewered on a stick and ripped it in half before chewing on it bad temperedly; small bones crunching unpleasantly between his teeth and doing nothing to sooth his temper.

He was pissed off at Yamato-taichou and even a little angry at Sakura-chan for doubting Sai, but more than anything else he was angry with himself.

He felt almost sick to his stomach with disappointment in himself, he _had_ jumped to Sai's defence without hesitation but he had still felt the smallest flicker of doubt in the back of his mind all the same. That little flicker had rapidly festered into a sick mess of fear and anger that felt like it was constricting his chest and making it difficult to breathe.

He sneaked a look at Sai from the corner of his eye and felt his resolve strengthen. It didn't matter, he thought to himself, he wouldn't let it happen again. He would not lose another one of his important people.

He swallowed the fish in his mouth and took a few measured breaths until he began to feel a little better. He scooted across the short distance between him and Sai and rested his head on his teammate's shoulder; feeling a warmth that had nothing to do with the fire when Sai leaned into him and rested his cheek on the top of his head. Naruto caught Sakura watching them from across the fire and he could quite clearly see how guilty she looked.

He shot her what he hoped was a reassuring grin; it felt a little stiff, like it sat on his face awkwardly, but she returned it with a small smile of her own and it was enough for him to feel like things were okay between them again.

oOo

After dinner Kakashi assigned them the same watch order as they had had the previous night and watched the three youngest members of his team get ready for sleep even though it was still early; although he was sure that it had more to do with the oppressive atmosphere than any desire to be well rested for the mission tomorrow.

Yamato had made five huts again but Kakashi knew that one of them would remain empty tonight as he watched Naruto and Sai squeeze into the same sleeping bag. He couldn't help but smile when Naruto made a sound that was very close to a shriek and started complaining loudly about Sai's cold feet.

He sat down in front of his own shelter, fully prepared to take an extra watch to make up for everyone else going to bed early. Well, not _everyone_ else, he thought to himself as his co-captain sat down beside him "Not going to sleep yet, Yamato?"

"I'm not really tired just yet, Senpai..." Yamato said, looking out over the fire and not elaborating any further.

Kakashi shrugged and didn't push or complain; if Yamato wanted to miss out on an hour's sleep then that was his business... and with another person awake it meant that he was free to dig his copy of Icha Icha Violence out of his weapons pouch.

The familiar cast and scenarios within immediately grabbed his full attention and almost a full half hour passed by before Yamato spoke again.

"Kakashi-senpai?"

Kakashi looked up from his book curiously. "Hm?"

Kakashi watched as Yamato opened his mouth and closed it again before frowning at the fire, obviously having difficulty putting what he wanted to say into words.

"I'll be keeping an eye on Sai, don't worry." Kakashi said, taking a stab at what he assumed Yamato must be trying to get at.

Yamato turned and looked at him thoughtfully "...Then you _do_ think he might turn on us?"

"I wouldn't have gotten this far in life without being cautious, Yamato" Kakashi said and realised that it came out harsher than he intended when Yamato stumbled over himself to correct him.

"I _know_ that, Senpai... it's just that what you said earlier..."

"I said what needed to be said." Kakashi responded simply "whether I believe it or not is hardly an issue."

Yamato considered him for a few seconds and Kakashi met his gaze steadily; eventually his co-captain looked back out across the fire, seemingly satisfied and Kakashi went back to reading his book.

oOo

Sai woke up three times during the night, the first time was when Sakura called him for his watch and he was a little troubled by how long it took for him to detangle himself from Naruto (who managed to stay asleep the whole time) and get out of the sleeping bag; precious seconds that he couldn't afford to waste if they were caught off guard.

The second time was when Naruto came back to the hut after his own watch and startled Sai into pinning him to the ground. Sai apologised but he didn't think that Naruto really seemed to mind...at least if the way that he felt something hard digging into the inside of his thigh was any indicator. He had kissed Naruto then but, unfortunately, any further activities were curtailed by Kakashi's weary warning from the other side of camp and they retired to the sleeping bag again.

They had lain facing each other, nose to nose, and Sai discovered that trying to sneak kisses without Kakashi noticing and the desire he saw in Naruto's eyes as he pressed their erections together through their clothes was more than enough to push the thoughts about how vulnerable they might be to an enemy attack out of his mind.

When he fell asleep again it was with a small smile on his face.

oOo

_Sai found himself standing in a familiar corridor, a corridor that he knew did not exist anymore. It was destroyed, along with most of Konoha, in Pain's attack on the village three years ago. The seemingly impossible situation did not disturb him because he was very aware of the fact that it wasn't real, that he was dreaming._

_He walked slowly down the hallway and turned when he reached the open doorway at the end. In the centre of the small dormitory he saw a little boy of maybe three or four years old, sitting on the floor with his knees hugged to his chest. Sai took in how his pudgy face was blotchy and that his eyes were red from crying. _

_Sai almost failed to recognise the child as himself; the expression of sorrow on the boy's face twisting it into something that he can't ever remember seeing in the mirror._

_During the Fourth Great Shinobi War after his brother's soul had been freed and the false body Kabuto constructed had crumbled away, Sai had felt the unfamiliar sensation of tears falling. That was the first and only memory he had of crying, but he assumed that the scene in front of him was a memory all the same; if only because he didn't think that his mind would be capable of fabricating something so completely alien to him._

_The dream shifted and Sai was suddenly not alone with his younger self, he watched as a young version of his brother sat down beside the little dark haired boy and put an arm around his shoulders._

"_Don't cry" Shin said softly and Sai was surprised when he felt an almost physical pain twist in his chest "We'll get strong and we'll leave this place together, okay?"_

oOo

Sai started awake for the third time that night and blinked up at the ceiling of his hut through blurry eyes. He felt anxious (which was unusual enough) and confused; usually his dreams, or at least the ones that he remembered, were just jumbled images and sounds with little meaning... but _that_ dream had been something entirely different.

His could feel the beginnings of a headache building behind his eyes and noticed that his vision was slightly... _off_ somehow. With some effort, he managed to free his left arm from the confines of the sleeping bag (being careful not to disturb Naruto) and when he reached up to his face with a slightly shaky hand he was surprised when his fingers came away wet.

He rubbed at his eyes with something akin to disbelief as another tear slipped down the side of his face and pooled unpleasantly in his ear. He might have found this unusual occurrence interesting under normal circumstances, something to be considered while he perused the psychology and physiology books in the library maybe, but he only felt lost...

It was still dark and Sai knew from his internal clock that there was still close to an hour before they were supposed to be getting up. He knew that he could get up and spend the remaining time with Yamato by the campfire but the idea of having to explain why his eyes were (no doubt) puffy and red seemed less than... desirable at the moment.

He rubbed at his face with the back of his hand until it was dry enough that he could almost pretend that the tears had just been part of that unusually vivid dream. He tucked his arm back into the sleeping bag and closed his eyes, wanting nothing more than to fall back asleep, thinking that this whole situation might seem less unpleasant when he looked back on it in the light of day.

Naruto tightened his grip around him in his sleep and mumbled something intelligible (Sai was sure that he heard the word 'ramen' in there somewhere) into the side of Sai's neck. He tried his best to push the dream out of his mind (with little success) and snuggled a little closer to the warm body beside him.

He knew that even though he had never had any trouble sleeping before (usually drifting off seconds after lying down) that this time unconsciousness would be long in coming.

oOo

Sakura couldn't help but notice how, compared to yesterday morning, her teammates were more than a little subdued this time around.

There was no arguing about breakfast, which was mostly because they had a ready supply of fish to eat, but she was sure that the fact that Naruto was still quite obviously upset with Yamato probably had something to do with it as well. It was hard to make small talk when one member of your squad looked like they were trying to make another spontaneously combust with their eyes.

Sakura had just finished packing away her sleeping bag when she noticed that Yamato and Sai were standing together by the river. While she was too far away to hear what they were talking about, she could tell easily enough from their expressions and body language that they were being civil and she allowed herself to hope that things were beginning to go back to normal. That was until Naruto marched over to them, interrupted their conversation and loudly declared that he needed to talk to Sai alone. Sakura watched with mild annoyance as Naruto dragged his confused teammate away from an equally bewildered Yamato.

It was a little ridiculous, she thought to herself with a frown, that Naruto was still holding a grudge when Sai himself seemed to have forgotten about the matter entirely.

When everyone was finally ready to leave she felt more than a little relieved, glad to have the distraction of the journey and impending operation to keep her mind off of Naruto and his contrariness.

oOo

Kakashi hoped that the six hour journey in almost complete silence had given Naruto the time that he needed to cool down but also knew from experience that he was probably expecting too much.

He had seen the way that Naruto kept looking to Sai as if he was worried that he might disappear at any second and he knew that Naruto was more scared that angry.

Kakashi knew that Naruto didn't have a single physical scar on his body; that the Kyuubi made sure that even the spot where Sasuke's fist had passed through Naruto's chest was as unblemished as it had been on the day he was born.

Sasuke had been unable to leave his mark in Naruto's flesh but he hadn't needed to; Naruto was scarred just the same.

oOo

Sakura felt the familiar twinge of anticipation as Kakashi raised his hand to bring them to a stop and she surveyed the area around them carefully. They were at the top of an incline that swept into a deep valley and she could see the ruins of a village nestled below, where the forest began to taper off.

"Okay this is it" Kakashi started and unfurled a scroll that showed a simple map of the village "Neji's report shows that most of their activity is concentrated in this building" he said, tapping the paper with his index finger.

Sakura could see that the building he was pointing to was the tallest one in the village and when she looked up she could see the real thing looming in the distance; unsurprisingly, it was in much better condition that the surrounding structures.

"We'll be splitting into two teams for the beginning of the operation" Kakashi continued "I'll lead one and Yamato will take the other. We'll work our way into the building from opposite sides and try to collect as much useful information as possible, hopefully without them noticing that we're there... if they're as similar to Konoha ANBU as Sai has told us then they should, at the very least, have personnel files stored here."

Kakashi paused and Sakura caught the look that he shared with Yamato before he spoke again, as if he was confirming something "Yamato, you'll take Naruto and Sakura... Sai is with me"

Sakura felt her eyebrows raise at the unusual arrangement. Whenever their team was temporarily spit for a mission Naruto would be paired with Yamato (in case he lost control of the Kyuubi's chakra) and Sai was usually put with them too... she _always_ went with Kakashi. He was way too reckless with his sharingan (and his health in general) to risk not having a medic nearby.

Added to that was the fact that Kakashi and Sai were both mid to long range fighters and it didn't really make a lot of sense for them to be in a team on their own... or at least it didn't until she realised what Kakashi was driving at.

He obviously wanted to keep Sai where he could see him while separating him from Naruto and herself at the same time.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said, obviously having realised their sensei's motivation as well "I thought you said that you trusted-"

"Naruto, do not question my orders" Kakashi said, his voice was calm but Sakura could hear the threat there and Naruto had obviously caught it too because he snapped his mouth shut so fast that she heard his teeth click together.

Naruto didn't try to argue the point any further and Kakashi and Sai split off from the group and started down the incline; Kakashi giving them a small backhanded wave before they disappeared from sight.

oOo

Naruto watched Sai's back as he walked away. His teammate didn't look back even once and Naruto felt that awful pressure around his ribcage again; like he couldn't get enough air into his lungs. He didn't feel angry anymore, just unsure and a little uneasy.

He almost jumped out of his skin when a hand landed on his shoulder.

"Don't worry." Yamato said, reassuringly "if anything happens they just need to mould their chakra and I'll feel it through the seeds."

Naruto exhaled deeply and smiled despite how shitty he was feeling; touched that Yamato would even bother to try and make him feel better when he knew he'd been nothing but a total asshole ever since dinner yesterday. "... Thanks, Yamato-taichou."

Yamato smiled back at him "Let's go".

oOo

A/N:

There's the eight chapter now. I've been feeling really down lately and I think that that kind of came through in this chapter... it came out way more emo than I had originally intended. I feel like the angst-train may be pulling into the station!

Anyways, comments and (constructive) criticism are always appreciated.

Thanks to sahisdabest for their review. I think that we couldn't call ourselves NaruxSai fans if we wouldn't have done the same thing that Sakura did in her position :D

Hope you enjoy this chapter!


	9. Chapter 9

Yamato led his team down the incline and through what remained of the forest until they arrived at the edge of the village below. He resisted his first urge to take to the rooftops, the buildings were much too short and widely spaced for them to travel that way discretely and he knew that they would be nothing more than moving targets up there. Instead, they crept silently amongst the cover of the dilapidated structures, Naruto and Sakura a few feet behind him, their eyes and ears tuned to any small movement or sound that might signal an enemy attack.

It wasn't long before he realised that there was a kind of ordered chaos to the rubble and ruin that surrounded them; paths were strategically blocked off so that all traffic was funnelled toward the tall building in the centre of the village. It made sense, Yamato thought to himself, it was set up so their enemies would always know what direction an attack would come from and it also meant that there were probably only two or three viable ways to reach the Root base on foot.

They turned a corner and Yamato froze mid step.

"Yamato-taichou...!" Sakura's voice was little more than a panicked hiss from behind him and he knew that she had seen it too.

"I see it." he whispered back, as he carefully withdrew his outstretched leg. His eyes followed the length of wire that he had come very close to stepping on. It was stretched across the street at ankle height and almost invisible, the dull grey of the metal blending in with the pavement beneath it, but it still caught enough of the afternoon sun to glint in a way that cement never would.

His sharp eyes picked out at least twenty more tripwires in their path; strung across the street at various heights and he knew that there were probably more, hidden in the shadows of the ones that he could see. It was going to be difficult to pick their way through the traps, especially since they had Naruto (who was not the epitome of grace and balance) with them, but it wasn't all bad. Yamato knew that the presence of such a large amount of traps here heavily implied that their enemies didn't have the manpower to physically watch every route to their base.

Their chances of reaching their goal undetected had just gone up... but that was only if they could get to the end of the street without tripping any of those wires.

oOo

Kakashi sat, silent and motionless in a broken window on the second storey of what he assumed used to be a shop. Facing outward and holding his breath he listened carefully to the almost inaudible sound of footsteps moving back and forth on the roof above him; he knew that he couldn't afford to be hasty and risk them sounding the alarm before he incapacitated them so he waited patiently for them to get close enough.

Minutes ticked by until he eventually heard the tap of feet on the tiles directly above him, the movement sent a few pebbles skittering over the edge and Kakashi watched as they fell through the air (almost in slow motion when viewed with his sharingan) and plummeted to the ground below; he knew that he had to make his move.

He pushed off from the windowsill and caught the edge of the roof with one hand, swinging upwards effortlessly and turning in the air so he was looking down on his target.

To their credit the ANBU that he surprised reacted quickly, hands flying through seals with almost no hesitation, and if Kakashi had needed to form seals of his own he probably wouldn't have been able to stop them in time. Fortunately, the ANBU was nowhere near prepared to deal with the sharingan (or its special brand of genjutsu) and met his gaze directly; their body had already begun to go limp before Kakashi had even landed on the roof beside them.

Kakashi reached out and caught them as they slumped forward, more to avoid them falling loudly to the ground than out of any real concern for their welfare. He hoisted them onto his shoulder and dropped back down to his earlier perch on the window ledge, stepping into the murk of the abandoned building; feeling much too exposed up on the roof. He removed their mask and was surprised when he recognised the man underneath as a Nara. He didn't know the man by name but he had seen enough of him to know that he was held in high regard within his clan.

Sai had mentioned that Danzou had had a Yamanaka and an Aburame working under him but Kakashi had assumed that they were isolated cases of treason. The old clans of Konoha were close knit by nature and it made him wonder just how deeply this operation ran.

He shook his head to clear his mind; he would have plenty of time to dwell on the details when the mission was complete.

oOo

Naruto stood with Sakura while Yamato made his way through the first set of wires. The traps didn't seem to give him any trouble; he moved so quickly and easily that it almost looked like he had learned off their locations beforehand. When he reached a clear patch of ground he turned and beckoned for Sakura to follow. While she didn't move with the same confidence as their captain Sakura still managed to make ducking under and stepping over the spider web of metal wires look easy. Naruto watched as she reached Yamato's side without even breaking a sweat; he would be lying if he said he wasn't a little envious of their natural grace.

Naruto frowned at the wires that separated him from the rest of his team; twelve feet had never seemed so far away...

They were both staring at him now and Naruto couldn't help but feel a little annoyed at how nervous they looked (although Yamato concealed it better than Sakura), they obviously expected him to make some stupid mistake and get them caught.

The determination to prove them wrong was enough to spur him into action, he reached up and straightened his forehead protector and flashed them his best grin (although that seemed to make Sakura look more nervous rather than do anything to reassure her) before lifting one foot and stepping carefully over the first pair of wires.

oOo

Kakashi hopped from window ledge to window ledge, the unconscious body over his shoulder bouncing bonelessly with each leap, until he reached the highest point that he dared to risk. He closed his right eye and scanned the area with his sharingan; the only chakra signatures that jumped out at him were Sai's (a few streets over to his left) and the dull glow of the rest of his team on the other side of the village.

There were only supposed to be ten of them in the base (if the information he had gleaned from the Root girl was accurate) so it made sense that there would only be one or two sentries.

Kakashi headed in Sai's direction and eventually found him behind the crumbled shell of a building, crouching over the body of an obviously dead ANBU and wiping the blood off his tanto using their cloak.

"I need you to bind this one for me" Kakashi said softly as he landed beside Sai and dropped the Nara man onto the ground.

Sai nodded and reached into his pack to retrieve a scroll. As Sai's snakes came to life and began slithering across the ground toward their target Kakashi let his gaze drift to the ANBU that lay in the dirt a few feet away, there was a clean cut across their throat and Kakashi could see the grisly flash of bone deep in the wound. It had been an efficient (and likely painless) execution.

The porcelain tiger mask was familiar and, curiosity getting the better of him, he went down on one knee beside the body; reaching out to remove the mask. Long dark hair partially obscured the woman's too pale face and he brushed her fringe away from her forehead, revealing the curse mark there. It was with a kind of sad resignation that he realised that this was one that he _did_ know by name.

Her name was Hyuuga Setsuka, and he had been pretty close with her squad back in his ANBU days, working with them on several missions and spending many late nights smothering their demons with alcohol... and even though his recollection was a little hazy, he knew that he had drunkenly fallen into bed with her at least once.

He wasn't really surprised to see her here, she had always been very vocal in her opposition to the main/branch family system that her clan favoured and Kakashi could quite easily imagine Danzou promising to bring an end to it when he became Hokage... regardless of whether he intended to keep his word or not.

Without thinking, he slid his hand down her face and closed her half-lidded eyes; he was suddenly very aware of Sai watching him.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sai asked and his tone was more curious than worried. "Did you know her?"

Kakashi let his hand drop away from her face and stood back up "...Let's go" he said as he jumped nimbly up to the nearest rooftop.

Sai followed suit without asking anymore questions and that was something that Kakashi was more than grateful for.

oOo

Sakura watched with trepidation as Naruto started crossing the maze of wires, his confidence (and carelessness) obviously increasing with each step. He had covered half of the distance between them when he paused and looked up, something mischievous sparkled in his eyes as he lifted his arms into the air and Sakura's trepidation morphed into full blown horror when she realised what he was about to do.

"Naruto!" she and Yamato both hissed at the same time.

Their warnings obviously fell on deaf ears when he ignored them completely, running two steps and doing a forward flip through the air. As he was coming back down his foot came very close to clipping one of the wires and Sakura's heart lurched in her chest, sure that they were about to be hailed with exploding tags, but he somehow managed to land safely on his feet.

"How _awesome_ was that?" he said, laughing under his breath; he looked so inordinately happy with himself and his grin was so wide that Sakura had to wonder how his head didn't split in two.

"Are you an _idiot_?" she was trying very hard to keep her voice low and not scream at him like she so desperately wanted to, but it was difficult. She couldn't even say she was that surprised; Naruto was always pulling stupid stunts like this... the urge to stomp over and smack him upside the head was almost too strong to resist.

"This is an important mission, Naruto" Yamato whispered sternly "I expect a little more from you... you're not a kid anymore."

"Okay, okay... I'm sorry" Naruto said. He made a show of looking guilty and rubbed at the back of his head but it was hard to believe him when his smile didn't falter even a little.

"Just get over here already!" Sakura said, exasperated.

With the way he had pulled off that spectacular front flip only moments ago Sakura could be forgiven for thinking that she had underestimated Naruto's ability to navigate his way through the traps. There were three wires between them and then maybe only four times that many until they got to the end of the street... she was even beginning to think that if Naruto could just _behave_ himself that they might still have a chance of reaching their target without being detected.

Unfortunately her hopes were dashed when Naruto took one step forward, tripped over his own foot and went blundering right into one of the wires.

"Shit..." Naruto managed before everything went to hell.

oOo

Sai stuck close to Kakashi as they reached the tall building in the centre of the village (one of the broken signs outside indicated that it used to be a medical facility) and skirted the sagging chain link perimeter fence, looking for any discrete point of entry.

They found a spot in the fence where there was a hole (just large enough for an adult male to pass through on his hands and knees) and the way that the stray bits of wire had been folded back carefully with pliers implied that it was intended to be used as an entrance or exit of some sort. They passed through the gap and were just coming up to the side of the building when the ground shook with the force of an explosion. They both dropped to the ground instinctually before it registered that the explosion was nowhere near them; that it had, in fact, come from the other side of the village. Where the rest of their team was supposed to be... where _Naruto_ was supposed to be.

Sai had felt worry before (sometimes for Sakura but almost always for Naruto) but it didn't quite compare to the unpleasant pulling sensation in his chest or the almost nauseous feeling in the pit of his stomach that he was experiencing now.

Kakashi pushed up from the ground, back into his earlier crouching position and Sai mimicked him without thinking. It wasn't until Kakashi started moving toward the building again that Sai found his tongue and spoke up.

"Should we not go see if the others need assistance?"

Kakashi pivoted just enough so he could look Sai in the eye "They're more than capable of looking after themselves. I'm sure they're fine."

Sai frowned, he knew that what Kakashi was saying was true and that he would never leave his teammates to fend for themselves if he thought they were in any real danger but that fact did very little to dispel the uneasiness he was feeling.

"...And besides" Kakashi continued "they've provided the perfect distraction."

Sai supposed that was also true; the Root Nin were no doubt flocking to the site of the explosion and leaving their base (and the information within) unguarded. He might have been tempted to argue the point a little further if Sakura hadn't been in the other group, she was the most capable medic-nin that he had ever worked with and he trusted that she would make sure that Naruto was unharmed.

Kakashi quirked an eyebrow at him in question and Sai nodded in affirmation. They approached the side door and Sai took his position on one side of it, body tense and ready to deal with whatever was on the other side as Kakashi reached out and tested the handle. It turned smoothly in his hand and he pushed the door inwards revealing nothing but an empty hallway.

They entered the base cautiously, listening carefully for any sign of enemy activity.

oOo

Naruto was a little disoriented; it was dark, he hurt all over and his ears were ringing. When he tried to stand up he bumped his head painfully against a hard ceiling and it wasn't until he reached out and pressed his hand up against a solid wall of wood that he realised what had happened.

"Yamato-taichou!" he called out.

The wood began to recede and Naruto squinted against the light. Before he even knew what was happening Sakura had grabbed him by the collar and pulled him out of his well-meaning prison. She manhandled him thoroughly, poking and prodding him with a medical efficiency that was slightly marred by how white her face was. He could see that Yamato looked uncharacteristically shaken as well.

"I'm fine, Sakura-chan" he said, trying to smile reassuringly.

She looked at him like he was an escaped lunatic "You just got hit by, I don't know, _fifty_ exploding tags! If you were anyone else we'd be picking _pieces_ of you up off the ground right now!"

"I got hit?" Naruto asked, honestly baffled. He remembered tripping but everything was a little blurry after that.

"Yes." Yamato spoke up "And then the force of the explosion set off all of the other traps in the area... I only just managed to protect us in time."

Naruto gulped and looked around; the pavement was completely torn up and scorched beyond recognition. "Er... My bad?"

Sakura swatted him across the back of the head and looked like she was just about to launch into a tirade when Yamato cut across her.

"We have to move quickly. We've blown our cover and our enemies will be converging on this point any second now."

"Prudent as ever, Tenzou-san"

Naruto scrambled to his feet at the sound of the unfamiliar voice, kunai already in his hand and he twisted just in time to block the sword that had been aiming for the back of his neck.

In the ensuing chaos, Naruto counted five ANBU including the one that was currently trying to skin him alive. Five against three didn't seem very fair, he thought to himself with a grin as he put some distance between them, it was time to even the odds a little.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he cried out.

Ten clones poofed into existence and joined the fray, two of them tackling an ANBU to the ground almost immediately while a third and fourth launched a rasengan into their prone target.

Naruto was distracted from admiring the handiwork of his clones when a hand burst from the ground and grabbed at his ankle, trying to pull him under in an earth element jutsu. One of the other Narutos caught him around the waist and pulled him aside at the last second and the hand closed on nothing but air.

Naruto held out his hand and the clone helped him form his own rasengan just as the ANBU was pulling themselves out of the earth, he slammed it into their chest and watched as they went careening backwards, colliding with the exterior wall of one of the buildings with a loud smack. They weren't getting back up anytime soon.

"Ha-ha! One down!" he gloated and high fived the other Naruto. The smile disappeared off the clone's face and was replaced with an expression of pained surprise; Naruto looked down to see a blade sticking through the clone's midsection just before it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

He barely managed to throw himself out of the way of the sword in time, going sprawling on the ground and leaving himself more than a little vulnerable. His opponent took advantage of the opening and Naruto winced in anticipation of the blow from the sword as the blade descended on him.

"Shannaro!"

Naruto heard the ANBU's ribcage crunch audibly before they were launched into the air by the force of Sakura's punch, hitting the ground hard and rolling until they lay in a motionless heap several metres away.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan!" Naruto beamed up at her as he took her extended hand and pulled himself to his feet.

"That's the last of them!" Yamato called from where he was standing a few feet away, his foot firmly planted between the shoulder blades of a bound ANBU.

Naruto's heart was pounding in his ears and the adrenaline was singing in his veins in the post-fight high. His eyes drifted back to Sakura and he couldn't help but notice the way she was breathing hard and was all flushed and sweaty; he wondered, briefly, what it would be like to have Sakura and Sai in bed at the same time. They would certainly make a pretty picture...

"Stop grinning like a moron, Naruto" she warned, almost as if she could read his mind.

Naruto supposed that those were the kind of thoughts that he should keep to himself if he wanted to keep some choice pieces of his anatomy.

oOo

Kakashi and Sai came across a room that was pitch black despite the early hour. Kakashi felt around the inside of the wall until he found a light switch; the fluorescents flickered to life and revealed a small office that was in much better condition than most of the other rooms in the building. The windows had been covered over with metal sheeting, there was a strategy table in the middle of the floor and the room was packed with bookshelves and filing cabinets. This had to be their base of operations.

Kakashi was quick to notice the paper tags that covered the drawers of the filing cabinets, obviously designed to keep prying eyes away from the documents inside; the seal depicted on each was complex and unfamiliar to him.

"Sai, do you know how to disarm these?" he asked.

Sai moved away from where he had been perusing one of the many bookshelves and crossed the room to look at the paper tags. "They're set up so that only a member of the foundation can unlock them... they look a little different from the last time I saw one, but the basic design is still the same."

Sai quickly formed the necessary hand seals (hare, snake, tiger and boar) and pressed his palm to the first paper tag. Kakashi watched closely with his sharingan and could clearly see how Sai was forcing his chakra into the seal; he spared a second to think about how lucky they were to have someone on their team who had been so close to Danzou.

"There, that should do it" Sai said finally as he peeled the tag off the drawer.

Sure enough, it came away from the metal so easily it was as if it were nothing more than a regular piece of paper.

"Good work." Kakashi said with a smile as he reached out and opened the drawer. It was full to the brim with manila folders and Kakashi ran his finger along the top of them before pulling one out at random.

He opened the folder and realised that these files were exactly what they were looking for. It contained photographs of one of the ANBU with their mask off and details of their personal life, fighting style and mission performance. There were maybe thirty files in this drawer alone and while he could memorise them with the sharingan they didn't really have the time for him to go through every single one of them.

"Sai, I'm going to need you to draw up a storage scroll. There's no way that we can carry all of this back to Konoha"

Sai moved to swing his pack off his back but then the lights were snuffed out and they were suddenly plunged into darkness.

oOo

Sakura was following close behind Yamato as they crossed the threshold and entered the enemy base when her captain came to an abrupt stop; she only just managed to avoid bumping into him and winced when Naruto stepped on the back of her foot.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan!" Naruto whispered from behind her.

She wasn't concerned with Naruto's clumsiness however, Yamato had turned around to face them now and his expression was grim.

"I just felt a massive burst of Sai and Kakashi-senpai's chakra" he said "we should-"

He was cut off as Naruto pushed past them and started down the corridor "Come on! What are we waiting for?"

Sakura jogged after him and Yamato wasn't far behind.

oOo

A/N:  
This chapter gave me a lot of trouble... there was a big fight scene that just didn't want to be written and then when I managed to get some of it down I ended up deciding that it would fit better in the next chapter anyway. *sigh*  
I feel like this chapter is kind of boring and transitional... but I promise that it will get better! The next instalment has action and angst all over the place.

My beta (who is also my fiancé! I love you baby!) pointed out that he thought that the ANBU enemies have been going down too easily and I guess that I want to address that here (just in case anyone else was thinking the same thing). My reasoning when I'm writing these fights is that Team Kakashi is ridiculously overpowered in universe; Kakashi, Yamato and Sai are all considered "elite" within the ANBU, Sakura is the Fifth Hokage's apprentice and the only one to have learned her deadly super strength and then Naruto is the hero of Konoha, the genin that defeated Pain! I just don't see them having too much trouble with regular ANBU is all.

Thanks to Utena-Puchiko-nyu (I'm glad you think they're in character!), sahisdabest (Sai talking about Root fits in with the canon; if you read the manga you'll see what I mean. The manga is better than the anime so you should read it anyway! :D), and Neutral747 (glad you're enjoying it so far!) for their reviews 3

As always any comments and (constructive) criticism are appreciated.


	10. Chapter 10 part 1

When the lights went out Sai hesitated for only a second before he continued to pull his pack off his back, swinging it off his shoulder and blindly rummaging through the contents. He could hear the sounds of battle a few feet away; metal clashing against metal, followed almost immediately by the sound of a man's pained grunt but Sai remained unruffled, even when something (he assumed was a shuriken or kunai) whizzed past his ear and thunked loudly into the wall behind him.

His hand finally closed around the familiar cylindrical shape that he had been looking for and he quickly withdrew the flare from his bag, uncapping it and rolling in across the floor toward the centre of the room.

The light from the flare gave everything an orange tint and cast long spidery shadows; he counted three ANBU in the room with them, two of which were exchanging blows with Kakashi and a third that was sitting cross legged on the floor, seemingly in deep concentration. Sai would have rushed into the fray and to Kakashi's aid if he hadn't been so distracted by the logical impossibility that his flare had highlighted.

The orange light cast by the flare was much dimmer than Sai knew it should have been and only managed to illuminate the area directly around it... but that wasn't what had caught his eye. It was the way that there was no transition between light and dark, only an unnaturally clean line as if some barrier was preventing the light from reaching the walls and (more importantly) the door. He had to assume that the darkness was being caused by some kind of jutsu.

The fact that one of their enemies was holding back from the fight seemed to support the idea that the inky blackness around them was unnatural; they were probably the kind of shinobi that was more suited to providing assistance from a distance. This most likely meant that they had some proficiency in genjutsu and medical ninjutsu; most significantly, it might also mean that they were less than prepared to deal with a direct attack.

Sai slid a scroll from his sleeve and unscrewed the end of it to get at the brush and ink well concealed there. He unfurled the scroll, spreading it out on the floor and dipping his brush in the ink before dragging it across the paper. Drawing in the dim light might have been difficult if the shapes that he was painting were not so familiar that he could probably produce them blindfolded. His hands moved almost of their own accord as his brush danced across the paper and he pushed chakra into the ink. The lions on the scroll took form, springing to life and heading straight for their target.

oOo

Fighting in the dark would never be a first choice for Kakashi but it wasn't really a problem for him either, his sharingan made the enemies stand out in the murk like coloured festival lanterns and he quickly did a head count (three unfamiliar chakra signatures and Sai crouching on the floor a few feet to his left) before he struck out at the one closest too him. The other shinobi dodged the blow effortlessly and it rapidly became apparent that rather than putting him at an advantage his sharingan had only managed to level the playing field; his opponents were obviously just as at home in the darkness as he was.

His opponent was quick to retaliate and Kakashi watched closely as the vaguely human-shaped blur of chakra moved to attack, their arm swinging towards him in a low arc that let him know that they had some kind of weapon. He quickly withdrew a kunai from his weapons pouch and blocked the blade that had been meant to disembowel him, his wrist clicked painfully as his arm absorbed most of the momentum of the blow; emphasising exactly why a kunai was a less than ideal way to counter a katana. He took a moment to lament the loss of his father's tanto all those years ago. The White Light Chakra Sabre that he had inherited would have really come in handy here, where every enemy he went up against seemed to have some kind of sword fetish.

Kakashi felt the air behind him shift slightly and he ducked down and out of the way without thinking, years of shinobi training (and having to deal with Gai as his rival) kicking in as he dropped into a crouching position. Something sailed over his head at an amazing speed, whistling audibly and moving much too quickly for him to identify what it was. There was a meaty smacking sound and a muffled cry that let Kakashi know that his assailant had managed to crash into their own ally.

Kakashi took the opportunity to sink the kunai he was holding into the soft flesh of his attacker's thigh, putting all of his weight onto the small blade as he pushed himself back to his feet. He felt the metal grate against bone and couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of admiration when the other shinobi's only response was to grunt quietly in discomfort.

He was just about to start channelling chakra into his hand to form a raikiri (and hopefully take at least one of the rogue ANBU out with it) when there was a strange hissing noise and suddenly the room was lit up. It took him less than a second to realise that Sai had lit a flare but it was enough time for his two "friends" to regroup and come at him again, leaving his hands too preoccupied with blocking their attacks to form any useful jutsu.

In the meagre light of the flare he finally got a good look at the two ANBU that he had been tussling with in the dark. One of them was massive, almost ridiculously so; well over six feet tall and almost as wide again, their ANBU vest was stretched so taught across their prodigious gut that it looked like it might tear at the seams at any second. Kakashi had to assume that he was looking at an Akimichi, which meant that that was yet another influential clan that was involved in this debacle; Tsunade was not going to be happy.

In comparison to their larger than life companion, the one with the sword wasn't particularly striking. They were of average height and indeterminate gender (although the ANBU tattoo on their right shoulder implied that they were female), even their mask was so unusually plain that Kakashi wasn't really sure what it was supposed to be; the only marking he could see on the white porcelain was a straight black line in a poor imitation of a mouth.

Kakashi caught movement from the corner of his eye and turned just enough to see five of Sai's ink lions charging at the third ANBU who didn't move a muscle, still sitting perfectly still with their hands folded neatly in their lap even as the lions came barrelling towards them. The Akimichi was gone from Kakashi's side in the blink of an eye, moving with a fluid grace that someone of that size should not have been capable of, crashing through the lions (which disappeared in a wet splash of ink) and heading right for Sai.

Kakashi knew that he had only a second to act.

oOo

As his lions crossed the short distance to their target Sai took note of the way his enemy didn't make any move to escape or retaliate, this fact coupled with how quickly one of their allies moved to protect them heavily implied that his target was essentially defenceless. This was important information, but as the huge ANBU shredded his lions and charged towards him he realised that he may not have the time to implement it.

Sai reached for the tanto on his back and prepared himself as best he could, he wasn't really confident that he could engage in hand to hand combat with someone of that size and strength without risking serious injury to himself but he had few other options. The room was far too small for him to put any real distance between them... which meant that the ink and scroll in front of him were pretty much useless.

The only saving grace was that he had a reasonable familiarity with most of the Akimichi family jutsu and wasn't surprised in the slightest when his opponent's fist quadrupled in size. His lack of hesitation and quick reflexes were the only things that saved him and he jumped to the side just as the gargantuan hand slammed into the floor (and left a sizeable crater) where he had been crouching less than a second before.

Boxed in against a wall and with another giant fist looming above him (poised to crush him like an insect), Sai knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge again. His thoughts turned to Naruto as he raised his sword in what he knew would be a worthless effort to block the oncoming blow and he couldn't help but think that this seemed like an incredibly inconvenient time to realise that he didn't want to die.

oOo

As he followed closely behind his teammates Naruto could feel his initial worry turning into something closer to panic. It took all of his willpower to maintain a steady jog instead of breaking into a fully fledged sprint; he couldn't help but notice how much the sound of their footsteps echoing in the winding and deserted corridors reminded him of another panicked search many years ago... the similarities between this situation and searching for Sasuke in Orochimaru's hideout made him feel even worse.

When they ran into yet another dead end he barely resisted the urge to punch the nearest wall in frustration. Sakura had said that the building was an old clinic but Naruto had never seen any kind of medical facility with a layout like this one and he figured that it had to have been (somehow) modified by the Root members when they turned it into their base.

"Goddamn it!" Naruto swore and ran a hand over his face in exasperation, all too aware of how many precious minutes were ticking by while they fumbled their way through this fucking _maze_ of a building.

Sakura reached out and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, he saw the concern and understanding in her eyes and he might have begun to feel a little better if he couldn't also see the disapproving expression on Yamato's face over her shoulder.

Yamato didn't have to speak to get his point across; Naruto already knew that he was being stupid, that Sai and Kakashi were more than capable of looking after themselves and that they had faced much stronger enemies than these Root remnants in the past. There was absolutely no reason for him to be so worried but he still couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to go down.

Yamato's mouth was drawn in an unhappy line and Naruto was convinced that he was going to be treated to a lecture (despite the urgency of the situation) on how shinobi were supposed to control themselves and not let their emotions compromise the mission. Yamato opened his mouth to speak but stopped abruptly, the first syllable dying on his tongue and his eyes going wide; his shocked expression might have been funny under different circumstances but it just made Naruto's heart leap into the back of his throat.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"We have to hurry." Yamato said grimly.

oOo

A/N:

Chapter ten is a bitch that simultaneously doesn't want to be written but also managed to balloon out into something much larger than what I originally intended to write for this part. As such, it's going to take me a while to make the tenth chapter presentable but at the same time I'm very aware of how long it's been since I've updated...

So, I present to you the start of chapter ten to tide you over until I've wrangled the rest of it into submission.

Stay tuned, the rest of this chapter shouldn't be too long in coming.

Thanks to the following for their reviews:

sahisdabest- I can totally understand where you coming from, fight scenes in manga are often way too confusing; that's why I read the manga *and* watch the anime for most series. I can actually tell you that I know that as of Shippuden episode 204 the anime has caught up to chapter 470 so you could always start reading from there. It wouldn't really take that long to catch up :)

Utena-Puchiko-nyu- I'm glad you enjoy my fight scenes, they're the thing that seems to give me the most trouble recently T_T

Neutral747- Thank you for your continued support and I hope you like this chapter!

iFanboy- Thank you :3 I hope this chapter was just as enjoyable for you.

Ember Spy- I hope that the later chapters lived up to the first. Thank you for your lovely review!

NX-Loveless-NX- Thank you. It would be a great help to me if you could point out where I've made mistakes in my grammar (maybe drop me a PM or something?).

mikael savisaar- Thank you and I hope you enjoy this one just as much :)


	11. Chapter 10 part 2

Ever since they had started scouring the Root base for the rest of their team Yamato had been keeping one eye on Naruto and it would be an understatement to say that he didn't like what he was seeing; Naruto was very obviously agitated and becoming more and more frustrated with each futile attempt they made to reach the others.

He did not consider himself to be an unreasonable man, Yamato could understand why Naruto might be concerned (they were all familiar with just how reckless Kakashi and Sai could be with their health) but could not condone the way that the younger man was letting the worry get to him... any academy student could tell you that a distracted shinobi was a sloppy shinobi.

He had been fully planning on expressing his disapproval and explaining to Naruto that he needed to get his head on straight before his lack of professionalism got them all in trouble, but then Yamato had felt something so unusual that it immediately grabbed his attention. Through his seeds, Yamato was tuned to Kakashi and Sai's chakra signatures and he had been able to feel the way they were fluctuating; the other members of their team were obviously engaged in battle

The simple fact that their teammates were caught in a fight in and of itself wasn't all that strange or worrying (despite the way that Naruto was behaving). What _was_ strange was that Sai's chakra had spiked suddenly; in what felt surprisingly like _fear_.

Yamato had been working with Team Kakashi for years now and had been using this method of keeping track of his teammates on missions for just as long. In stark contrast to the other junior members of their team he could probably count the number of times he had felt fear coming off of Sai on one hand. He hardly had time to contemplate what this unusual occurrence might mean before he felt Kakashi's chakra surge and then drop in a way that indicated he had just used an immensely draining jutsu.

The surprise and unease must have shown on his face because Naruto and Sakura were both looking at him with wide worried eyes, it made them look lost and far younger than they were.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"We have to hurry."

oOo

Sai reflexively closed his eyes in anticipation of the fatal blow, time seemed to slow to a crawl as his heart thumped almost painfully in his chest; his stomach clenched unpleasantly and he felt the sickly sting of bile in the back of his throat. He had been close to death many times in his short life but he had never felt such an aversion to the concept of his demise before... it was something that he deeply regretted not having the time to think about thoroughly.

There was a strange sound, like the whoosh of rushing air followed by a muffled popping noise and then his whole upper body was drenched with something warm and wet.

He flinched only a little when the liquid hit him and after a few seconds had passed and it didn't seem like he was going to be crushed to death after all, he cautiously reached up to his face to wipe the mess away from his eyes. It was viscous and sticky, much too thick to be water and when he had managed to mop enough of it off his face with his soggy sleeve to open his eyes he wasn't really all that surprised to see that it was blood.

Confused and still disorientated by the emotional and physical response he'd had to his near death experience, he had to blink a few times at his surroundings before it became apparent why he hadn't been pulverised into a bloody pulp. The Akimichi ANBU wasn't looming over him anymore and with good reason: the man was completely gone from the waist up. The ANBU's pelvis and legs were slumped awkwardly on the ground in front of Sai, what was left of his intestines had spilled out onto the floor and left a macabre smear of blood and faecal matter on the carpet. The smell was most unpleasant.

Sai looked up and saw that Kakashi was standing a few feet away, one hand clamped over his left eye and his shoulders sagging in exhaustion.

"Sai." Kakashi's voice came from across the room, cutting through the haze that had shrouded Sai's brain. He sounded tired but his voice didn't waver. "Get up."

oOo

Kakashi had pushed away from his current enemy and turned his sharingan on the Akimichi, he saw Sai dodge the first blow and get crowded into the corner before he was blocked out of sight by a veritable wall of meat. Kakashi knew that he didn't have much time but at least he had had a large target to work with; precision wasn't a factor as he focused all of his attention on one spot in the middle of the man's back. He felt his iris contract in the familiar, almost unpleasant way as it deformed into the mangekyo sharingan and watched the air around his opponent shimmer for a second before the ANBU's torso seemed to collapse in on itself.

One of the chubby legs took a half step before it seemed to get the message that it wasn't attached to a body anymore, teetering for a second before what was left of the man fell to the ground with a meaty thump.

Pain lanced through the left side of Kakashi's head and he pressed the heel of his hand against his sharingan eye; it had taken a lot of chakra to make that much bulk disappear and he was already feeling the strain... he was getting too old for this.

Kakashi scanned the room for the other ANBU with his good eye and saw that she had backed off until she was with her remaining teammate, assuming a defensive position over her crouching ally. They didn't seem to be fazed by what had happened to their squad mate but it didn't matter; with the massive Akimichi out of the way Kakashi was more than confident that he and Sai could take care of the remaining rogue ANBU, especially since he was almost positive that one of them was not all that offensively capable.

When he was satisfied that their enemies were going to keep their distance and play defensive (at least for the moment) he risked taking his eyes of them and looked back to the bloody mess on the other side of the room. He could see Sai was still crouched in the corner, covered in blood (that thankfully didn't seem to be his own) and looking an awful sight.

It didn't look like he had taken any physical damage but Kakashi couldn't help but notice how Sai spent a worryingly extended period of time staring down at what remained of the man who had almost killed him, blinking owlishly for several seconds before he finally looked up. His gaze was a little unfocused but Kakashi was reassured when he caught a glimmer of comprehension in the younger man's eyes. Sai was obviously shaken (which was almost unheard of but Kakashi had long given up on being shocked by strange behaviour from the younger members of his team) but nowhere near close to going into shock like Kakashi had originally feared.

It was a reaction that he really only expected from Naruto and Sakura in this day and age but it was clear that something had happened to throw Sai off his game... Kakashi wasn't sure _what _that 'something' was but at least he knew exactly how to deal with the situation.

"Sai." Kakashi spoke up, injecting as much authority into his tone as he could muster in his exhausted state. "Get up."

Sai jumped a little at the sound of his name but Kakashi could already see that he was looking better; the dazed expression being replaced by a more familiar look of blank obedience. Predictably, Sai did as he was told (although maybe a little slower than Kakashi might have liked) and got to his feet.

oOo

The tentative hope that Sakura had felt when they (finally) found a corridor that lead in the right direction was dashed when they discovered that the door at the end of the hallway wouldn't budge. There was an intricate design branded into the metal and Sakura couldn't help but appreciate the irony of being unable to reach the two seal experts on their team because there was a _seal_ in the way.

It was something that she'd make sure to point out the next time that Kakashi was splitting their team up for a mission. Assuming they all got out of this mission alive and well of course...

Her patience was really beginning to wear thin and she could quite clearly see that Naruto had long since passed that point himself. She knew that they were supposed to be keeping a low profile to retain the element of surprise but this was just getting ridiculous.

oOo

Satisfied that Sai was ready to rejoin the battle Kakashi turned his attention back to the two ANBU across the room. He had turned just in time to catch the end of a sequence of seals that he recognised as a fire element jutsu before there were three massive fire balls hurtling in his direction.

He was a little thrown for a second, confused as to why she had bothered to use such a flashy jutsu from a distance; the fire balls could be easily dodged, even in the small room. It seemed uncharacteristic for someone of ANBU rank to waste time and chakra on a jutsu that was very unlikely to hit its target...

_She's trying to destroy the files_, he realised with growing panic.

oOo

Sai had been presented with small window of opportunity and he took it without thinking. The fire jutsu had completely blocked the line of sight between him and his opponents, giving him just enough time and cover to perform the body flicker technique and cross the room.

He appeared behind his enemies with his tanto already in his hand. He hesitated for a second as he watched all three of the fire balls wink out of existence in quick succession and knew that Kakashi had used his mangekyo again; Sakura was not going to be happy about that.

He raised his sword into the air and prepared to strike, the ANBU who had cast the fire element jutsu hadn't noticed his presence but the one who was sitting on the ground jerked a little in surprise at the movement behind them and began to turn around.

Sai swung his blade down quickly and with as much force as he could muster, knowing that he might only have one chance to catch the other shinobi off guard. His sword sliced easily into the flesh where the ANBU's neck joined their shoulder until it hit something hard, severing muscles and major blood vessels in what Sai knew would soon be a fatal wound. Fresh blood sprayed up from the gash, splattering his bare left arm and the front of his shirt but it hardly stood out against the rest of the gore he was already covered in.

His enemy cried out in pain and the room was suddenly very bright again. Whatever darkness jutsu that had been blanketing the room had been dispelled as its caster lost concentration. The other ANBU whirled around in surprise and Sai pulled on his tanto, hoping to retrieve it and block the expected retaliation but his sword was stuck fast; completely embedded in bone.

He only barely managed to retrieve a kunai from his weapons pouch in time to block the downward sweep of his enemy's katana. His hand was still slick with blood and the force of the blow made the kunai shift unsettlingly in his grip, coming very close to being knocked out of his hand altogether.

The ANBU increased the pressure behind the blade, bending Sai's wrist at an awkward angle and weakening his grip even further. His joint clicked painfully in protest and he knew that he couldn't keep this up for very long, but he also knew that he had run out of other options. Kakashi was not going to be in any position to provide immediate aid after using the mangekyo sharingan so often over such a short period of time...

Sai caught movement out of the corner of his eye, from the wall nearest to them. Inexplicably there was a crack forming in the middle of the wall and it was rapidly expanding; sending smaller cracks out from its edges in a spider web of tiny fissures.

The pressure on his wrist weakened marginally and Sai knew that the ANBU had noticed it too. Sai was quickly trying to think of the best way to take advantage of the distraction when the wall caved in dramatically; with such force that it felt like the whole building shook on its foundation. Sai hardly noticed the debris that flew across the room (some of it coming very close to hitting him and his opponent); he was much more concerned with what (or rather _who_) had ploughed through the wall.

"Rasengan!"

oOo

A/N:

That's chapter ten done an dusted. I'm still not sure if I'm 100% happy with it... but I've been tweaking it for so long now that I don't think I can really make it any better.  
Is the gore a little too much? It's something that I have a lot of fun writing (I'm just weird like that :P ) but I'll try and cut back on it if it's turning anyone off the story.

On to my beloved reviewers! 3

-19sumayyah80: I know what you mean. I've been tempted to write a few smutty oneshots so that I can get back to the sexy stuff but this arc is winding to a close. Once they get back to Konoha you can expect more pr0n!

-LittlexCreature: I hope that you enjoy this chapter just as much. Yeah, Naruto wouldn't be Naruto without being a little silly :P

-Neutral747: I hope you enjoyed the battle scenes in this chapter:D

-Utena-Puchiko-nyu: I hope that this chapter helps you feel better after that nasty cliffhanger (I'd say I was sorry, but I'm not really :P ).

-PlugInSarah: This review really put a smile on my face! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far and hope that you enjoy this chapter just as much. I haven't really decided what I'm doing with most of the Konoha kids romance-wise, but I'm sure Neji will find someone to make him happy!


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